
A Resolve of 5ir Thomas Drown?) 

"To take occasion of praqinq 
upon the siqht of anq church "that 
(see or pass by" 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE RURAL CHURCH 

AND 

COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 



The Rural Church 



AND 



Community Betterment 



EDITED BY 
COUNTY WORK DEPARTMENT 






IjLtx- i^y^-Ali£$.9. Cm^CLv 



NEW YORK: ASSOCIATION PRESS 
1911 



y 









Copyright, 1911 by 

The International Committee of Young Men's 

Christian Associations 



Association Press 
124 East 28th St. 
New York City 



©CI.A289316 



MINUTES OF THE RURAL CHURCH CONFER- 
ENCE HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
COUNTY WORK DEPARTMENT OF THE INTER- 
NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS AT THE INTER- 
NATIONAL COMMITTEE BUILDING IN NEW 
YORK CITY, THURSDAY, DECEMBER FIRST, 1910 



THE RURAL CHURCH 

In some great day 

The country church 

Will find its voice 
And it will say: 

" I stand in the fields 
Where the wide earth yields 

Her bounties of fruit and of grain; 
Where the furrows turn 
Till the plowshares burn 

As they circle again, again; 
Where the workers pray 
With their tools all day 

In sunshine and shadow and rain. 

"And I bid them tell 
Of the crops they sell 

And speak of the work they have done; 
I speed every man 
In his hope and plan 

And follow his day with the sun; 
And grasses and trees, 
The birds and the bees 

I know and I feel every one. 

"And out of it all 
As the seasons fall 

I build my great temple alway; 
I point to the skies 
But my footstone lies 

In commonplace work of the day; 
For I preach the worth 
Of the native earth — 

To love and to work is to pray." 

Liberty H. Bailey. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Program ...... 


9 


List of Speakers ..... 


13 


Introductory ...... 


17 


Rules ....... 


19 


Opening Session ..... 


21 


Discussions : 




The Teaching of Religion in the Country . 


23 


Country Church Finances and Administra- 




tion ...... 


41 


Country Community Building 


52 


Cooperation and Integration of Community 




Institutions . 


64 


The Function of the Country Church 


81 


Summaries of Discussions .... 


121 


List of Delegates ..... 


129 



PROGRAM 

Prayer. 

Discussion: "The Teaching of Religion in the 
Country." Led by Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., 
superintendent of the Department of Church and 
Country Life, Presbyterian Board, New York. 

1. The best center for teaching the Bible in the 
country community: Is it within the church 
or outside of churches? 

2. What are the best courses of Bible study for 
working farmers? 

3. Is the present doctrinal training obsolete? 

4. Does the philosophy and theology taught in 
colleges and seminaries unfit men for rural 
service by its individualism ? 

By teaching about exceptional instances, mira- 
cles, wonders, heroism and saints, instead of 
teaching obedience to law, average cases, 
standards of conduct, typical men, practicable, 
economical and ethical levels? 

5. Is the seminary training for rural pastors 
unsuited by its traditions, viz., a prayer for 
rain in a region watered by irrigation ? 

6. Does social efficiency suffer through the teach- 
ing of sectarian doctrines? 

7. What course of seminary training would fit 
men for rural service? 

8. Should the seminary or the agricultural col- 
lege train men for service in the country ? 



10 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Discussion : "Country Church Finances and Ad- 
ministration." Led by Prof. Thomas Cuming Hall, 
D. D., professor of Christian Ethics, Union Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

1. Has the country minister a living wage? 

2. How can a living be secured for him ? 

3. Why do rural laymen manage so badly? 

4. What use can be made in rural social service 
of modern means of communication and trans- 
portation ? 

5. Is church federation made impossible by in- 
vested interests in country church property? 

6. Would the endowment of country churches 
help? 

Discussion : "Country Community Building." 
Led by Prof. Edwin L. Earp, professor of Sociology, 
Drew Theological Seminary. 

1. What religious service is needed for the non- 
Protestant, non-evangelical and the un- 
churched ? 

2. How shall immigrants be socially and polit- 
ically assimilated, who are now economically 
employed ? 

3. Emigrating families: for young men and young 
women leaving for the city? 

4. Through what measures can religious institu- 
tions improve the schools? 

5. What effective measures can be taken for good 
roads? 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 11 

6. Public sanitation. 

7. How shall better agriculture be taught in the 
country community ? 

8. What teaching as to city life, if any, should be 
given in country institutions? How far shall 
city institutions and methods be imitated? 

9. How can public libraries be provided in the 
country community? 

10. Can farmers' clubs be organized to promote 
scientific agriculture? 

11. How can public recreation be used to relieve 
the tedium and loneliness of country life ? To 
improve the morals of the young and of the 
working people and to eliminate the obscene and 
the impure from act and thought ? 

12. How can community leadership be developed 
in the country ? 

Discussion: "Cooperation and Integration of 
Country Community Institutions.' ' Led by Presi- 
dent Kenyon L. Butterfield, Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College. 

1. Church cooperation, federation, consolidation: 
Is it necessary? Practicable? Under what 
circumstances? On what principles? What 
can the Young Men's Christian Association or 
the seminary do to aid it? 

2. Cooperation of church and Young Men's 
Christian Associations? Cooperation with the 
grange? With the public school? 



12 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

3. Is the Young Men's Christian Association or 
the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ 
in America the agency for federating rural 
churches and institutions? 

Discussion: "The Function of the Country 
Church." Led by Prof. G. Walter Fiske, junior 
dean, Oberlin Theological Seminary. 

1. What is the church's function or business? 

2. Does the crying need of federation throw light 
on the essential nature of the church? 

3. Is the country community better served by a 
single church or a plurality of churches ? 

4. In harmony with its function what can the 
church in the country do to promote physical, 
intellectual, economic and social welfare? 



LIST OF SPEAKERS 

Rev. William H. Allison, Ph. D., dean and profes- 
sor of Ecclesiastical History, Colgate Theological 
Seminary. 

Rev. W. L. Anderson, author of The Country 
Town, 

Rev. R. H. M. Augustine, pastor, Presbyterian 
Church, Hanover, N. J. 

C. A. Barbour, D. D., secretary, International Com- 
mittee Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Kenyon L. Butterfield, LL. D., president, Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College. 

Rev. Andrew Campbell, pastor, Orthodox Congre- 
gational Church of Christ, Groveland, Mass. 

Rev. W. Russell Collins, D. D., professor of Lit- 
urgies and Ecclesiastical Polity, Theological Semi- 
nary of the Reformed Episcopal Church, Phila- 
delphia. 

Dwight C. Drew, State County Work secretary of 
the Young Men's Christian Associations of 
Massachusetts. 

Edwin L. Earp, Ph. D., professor of Sociology and 
director of Drew Theological Seminary. 

Frederick E. Emrich, D. D., secretary, Massachu- 
setts Home Missionary Society. 

Rev. Charles R. Erdman, professor of Practical 
Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary. 

Elmer O. Fippin, professor of Soil Technology, 
New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell 
University. 



14 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Prof. G. Walter Fiske, junior dean, Oberlin Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

Prof. Owen H. Gates, librarian, Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

Thomas Cuming Hall, D. D., professor of Christian 
Ethics, Union Theological Seminary. 

Hon. Willet M. Hays, assistant secretary, United 
States Department of Agriculture. 

Alvah S. Hobart, D. D., professor, New Testament 
Interpretation, Crozer Theological Seminary. 

Arthur S. Hoyt, D. D., professor, Homiletics and 
Sociology, Auburn Theological Seminary. 

H. B. MacCauley, D. D., secretary Eastern Dis- 
trict Federal Council of the Churches of Christ 
in America. 

D. Hunter McAlpin, M. D., chairman, Interna- 
tional County Work Committee, Young Men's 
Christian Associations. 

Prof. James McConaughy, Mount Hermon School. 

William D. McRae, state county work secretary 
of Young Men's Christian Associations of N. J. 

Rev. Paul Martin, registrar and secretary, Princeton 
Theological Seminary. 

Prof. Alexander R. Merriam, Department of Homi- 
letics and Pastoral Care, Hartford Theological 
Seminary. 

Richard C. Morse, general secretary of the Inter- 
national Committee of Young Men's Christian 
Associations. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 15 

Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root, field secretary of the 
Massachusetts Federation of Churches. 

EHas B. Sanford, D. D., corresponding secretary of 
the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 
America. 

Josiah Strong, D. D., president, American Institute 
of Social Service. 

Prof. Robert W. Veach, dean of Bible Teachers 
Training School, New York. 

Rev. George F. Wells, research secretary, Depart- 
ment of Christian Sociology, Bureau of Field 
Work, Drew Theological Seminary. 

Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., superintendent of the 
Department of Church and Country Life of the 
Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church of the United States of America. 



INTRODUCTORY 

The Country Church Conference was 
called by the County or Rural Section of the 
Young Men's Christian Association to secure 
a consensus of opinion from church leaders 
and other authorities on country life as to the 
real function of the church in the country 
community, its relationship to other organi- 
zations and how there can best be established 
a basis of cooperation between the church and 
its supplementary agencies. 

The program was assembled from the 
more than two hundred questions submitted 
by the leading authorities, social, educational, 
economic and religious, on country life in 
North America, and even after the most rigid 
condensation was still so comprehensive as to 
make it necessary to treat many of the topics 
in a superficial manner. Several days could 
have been spent with profit in the discussion 
of the program, but unfortunately only one 
day was available. 

There were more than one hundred dele- 
gates and visitors, including, as will be seen 
in the list of names published on another 
page, representatives from nearly all of the 



18 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

theological schools of the East, agricultural 
colleges, the Department of Agriculture at 
Washington, the Bureau of Education, the 
Federal Council of Churches, the great de- 
nominational bodies and the leaders in 
Young Men's and Young Women's Christian 
Associations. 

There was a very general agreement that 
what is most needed in order that the country 
church shall function properly is, first, a 
specially trained ministry — a ministry that 
recognizes in the country church an oppor- 
tunity for a life service, a ministry so gripped 
by this opportunity that no appeal of the city 
church can supersede or equal it; second, a 
getting together of all the forces for good in 
the community; and third, the development of 
native talent in leadership equal to this con- 
structive program by which the country com- 
munity becomes new without losing the 
worthy ideals of the old. This is real com- 
munity building which recognizes the church 
as the fundamental agency of human welfare, 
but points out the necessity of a broader out- 
reach of the church in cooperation with sup- 
plemental agencies. 



RULES. 

A committee consisting of Dr. Warren H. 
Wilson of the Presbyterian Board, Dr. W. L. 
Anderson of Amherst, Massachusetts, Prof. 
Edwin L. Earp of Drew Theological Semi- 
nary and Dr. D. H. McAlpin of the Inter- 
national Committee of the Young Men's 
Christian Associations prepared rules to gov- 
ern the discussions as follows : 

i. Leader of discussion will be allowed 
ten minutes for opening remarks. 

2. Each subsequent speaker will be al- 
lowed five minutes and notified one minute 
before expiration of time. 

3. On rising, the speaker must give name 
and the name of the institution he represents 
as well as his official title. 

4. No man can speak twice on the same 
topic without general consent. 

These rules were presented to the confer- 
ence by Dr. Wilson, the first speaker, and 
unanimously adopted. 



THE MORNING SESSION 

Prayer was offered by Rev. R. H. M. 
Augustine. 

D. H. McAlpin, M. D., Chairman of the 
County Work Department of the Interna- 
tional Committee, presided, and after a brief 
speech of cordial welcome to the delegates, 
asked Mr. Albert E. Roberts to state the 
object of the conference. 

Mr. Roberts : 

I wish to say that whatever good may come 
from this conference is due in a very large 
degree to the work of Dr. McAlpin, Chair- 
man of the County Work Committee, who 
has manifested a great deal of interest, given 
a great deal of time, and who more than any 
one man has made possible this gathering. 
Along with this has been the splendid co- 
operation of my associate, Mr. Israel, who 
has conducted much of the correspondence 
and has put in a great deal of time and hard 
work in assembling the program. We also 
owe thanks to the men who have counseled 



22 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

with us — Dr. Wilson, Mr. Hill of the New 
York State work, Dr. Fiske and Dr. Butter- 
field, Professor Coe of Union Theological 
Seminary and others who cannot be here. 
Many have contributed to make this program 
possible. We are looking for light. We are 
on a common platform, allies of the church. 
Because the church is so great a factor in the 
community, we desire to know where we can 
best cooperate; how to avoid duplication of 
effort and eliminate waste; and so with that 
purpose in mind, and with wholly open minds, 
as was expressed in the prayer, our desire is 
to get from the conference those things that 
will make us more useful in the work to which 
we have been called. 

We realize the limitations of this program. 
Over two hundred questions were submitted. 
We have missed many of them, but this is 
the beginning and not the end. We hope it 
is the beginning of a series of similar confer- 
ences. 

The chairman appointed the following 
delegates to bring in at the close of the after- 
noon period a resume of each discussion for 
the consideration of the conference : 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 23 

Topic I. "Cooperation and Integration of 
Country Community Institutions/ ' 
Mr. D. C. Drew. 

Topic II. "The Teaching of Religion in the 
Country," Dr. C. A. Barbour. 

Topic III. "Country Church Finances and Ad- 
ministration," Rev. R. H. M. Augus- 
tine. 

Topic IV. "Country Community Building," Prof. 
Ernest Burnham. 

Topic V. "The Function of the Country 
Church," Mr. Richard C. Morse. 

THE TEACHING OF RELIGION IN 
THE COUNTRY 

Dr. Warren H. Wilson: 

The "Religious Teaching in the Country 
Community" is a matter of pure pragmatism. 
In certain states they send out a "seed train" 
whose business it is to test the fertility of the 
seed corn. We have come today to do the 
same thing. We would have aboard our 
"seed train," which shall test the doctrine in 
the country churches, a professor of sociol- 
ogy and a professor of economics; a repre- 
sentative of scientific agriculture, a country 



24 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

doctor and a well-to-do farmer. These 
would test the doctrinal teaching of the coun- 
try minister, in a very practical way. Chris- 
tianity is a good gospel, but for some reason 
it is not always fertile in the country commu- 
nity. Why not? The seed is planted in the 
mind by faithful preachers, but people are 
not induced to follow the gospel. The ques- 
tion is, "Does the gospel, as it is preached, 
make good, and if not, what is needed that 
it may make good?" We have to approach, 
therefore, the fundamental question which 
President Butterfield precipitates in his state- 
ment that the country life movement is a 
movement for the reconstruction of rural 
civilization. What gospel and what ministry 
will serve in this reconstruction ? 

Let us look at the four institutions which 
have been the nuclei of rural interests, the 
store, the school, the church and the family. 
The rural household is the traditional Ameri- 
can family. Everyone of these nuclei of 
country life is out of repair and in need of 
reconstruction. The personal character of 
country people is not out of repair. Nowhere 
is there a higher individual morality. The 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 25 

relations of the sexes, in the country, as the 
investigation of the Rural Life Commission 
showed, are normal and the ethical stand- 
ards are high. Rural observers testify to the 
high standard of individual ethics, according 
to traditional tests of righteousness, but the 
social ethics of the country is very low. I 
have never known milk farmers who had any 
ethical standard as to the quality of milk. 
They believe in giving quantity, but only a 
social standard would give us a better quality 
of milk. The milk farmer will fight against 
a higher social standard. 

The country store is closed. Sir Horace 
Plunkett says that the country above all needs 
better business methods. Very generally the 
country community has no economic center. 
The country school is the most retrograde 
of all educational institutions. The country 
church merely exists, struggling for survival 
alone. The rural family is in dissolution. 
The picture at the World's Fair, "Breaking 
Home Ties," gave artistic expression to this 
condition and showed the sore place in coun- 
try life. 

This condition of social dissolution, this 



26 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

sharp contrast between high individual ethics 
and low social ethics, describes the need of 
religious teaching in the country. It should 
be socially constructive. In the first place, 
religious teaching in the country should be 
systematic, but not dogmatic. The system 
should be thorough, but if possible it should 
not be sectarian. The aim of religious teach- 
ing in the country should be to unify, not to 
divide. The difference between higher criti- 
cism and conservative biblical teaching cannot 
deliver its values in the country. I have seen 
a Catholic population take on all the manners 
of a Quaker population, and yet remain good 
Catholics. I know the minister of a church 
covering twenty-four square miles. This 
church has taught the religion of unity, for 
no other church has come into its territory in 
two hundred years. Yet I know another com- 
munity where, in a radius of four miles, there 
are twenty-four country churches. Farmers 
need a unitary center of Christianity and they 
need it seriously. 

The question, "Where shall the Bible be 
taught?" is to be answered with another ques- 
tion, "What leaders can we secure?" and 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 27 

"What can the leaders do?" Leaders are 
few in the country and you must do, in the 
country community, that for which you have 
leaders. The Bible should be taught where 
the leaders available can best teach it. Teach 
about God, and not about the church. The 
essential thing is that the church, the Associa- 
tion, and other institutions be forgotten, and 
that we teach the divine message : the father- 
hood of God and the divine power of Jesus 
Christ. If we do so, the church and the 
Association will thrive. 

As has been suggested, we should not 
teach, in the country, about miracles or excep- 
tional instances, heroes, saints and wonders 
so much, but should teach obedience to law, 
standards of conduct, practicable, economic 
and ethical levels. The farmer is governed 
by law, and not by accident, and the rural 
economy develops regular action rather than 
impulsive and special action. 

Religious teaching in the country centers 
in the seminary. The need in the seminary 
is not to discredit the biblical and traditional 
training, but to add to it the teaching of the 
science of sociology. We have in the semi- 



28 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

nary a great body of knowledge, to which 
must be applied social and economic thinking 
and a training in social service. We need to 
supplement the seminary training, not to dis- 
place it, but the training in sociology must be 
scientific, scholarly, and the teacher of this 
science must be the peer of any other in the 
seminary. 

Dr. A. S. Hobart: 

I regret any seeming thrust at the life of 
the individual church. Whatever civilization 
there is in the country comes from Christian 
churches, and whatever morality is in the 
people comes from Christian teaching as 
given there. It has been given by ministers as 
taught in seminaries by the curricula as they 
are. I think we must be careful not to say 
Christian churches are not good for anything. 
My observations of moral conditions in the 
country lead me to different conclusions. I 
may be in error but my judgment is that in 
sexual matters the country is worse off than 
the city. I once supposed the city was very 
rotten, but since living in cities I think the 
evil worse in the country. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 29 

If you introduce much sociology and eco- 
nomics into our seminaries you must leave the 
Bible out for lack of time. This movement, 
if it goes on the lines indicated in this pro- 
gram, strikes at the whole organization of 
the Christian church. When you leave out 
of seminaries instruction in the Bible and 
theology you are taking the foundation out 
from under the Christian church. So far you 
have not found anything else to take the place 
of these. Agriculture won't do it, sociology 
won't do it. If you don't preach the Bible, 
the churches won't last. The Bible is the 
source of all and when you ask the ministers 
to teach sociology and agriculture and eco- 
nomics you are putting on them a burden 
which is too heavy. 

Hon. W. M. Hays: 

This question of the country church is 
bound up with the entire reorganization of 
the rural community and the rural commu- 
nity is making itself over and is adopting a 
new unit of organization. The size of area 
covered by the new unit is determined by the 
practicable team-haul to the public school. 



30 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Five to eight one-room schools to which the 
pupils walk are being consolidated into one 
three- to six-room school to which the pupils 
are hauled in public wagons. The farmers 
in the open country during the past sixteen 
years have made more than one thousand 
experiments in consolidating rural schools. 
Not five per cent of the two or three hundred 
thousand parents who have had experience 
sending their children, both to the one- 
room rural school and to the consolidated 
rural school, would vote to return to the 
smaller unit. The consolidated rural school 
has won its way in American country life 
education. 

The farm families are recentered about 
the consolidated rural school. Once the 
people in this new school district all become 
acquainted they will gradually center many 
of their other country life interests beside the 
school. Heretofore the farm families have 
been but poorly centered about the one-room 
school, about the country church, which is 
rarely beside the school, and about the 
country stores, villages and towns. 

Under the new plan we shall have the 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 31 

farm families all so recentered about the con- 
solidated rural school — with its district cov- 
ering twenty to forty square miles, instead 
of four to six square miles, as in the past — 
that a new community life will spring up. 
The sending of delegates to county and other 
associations and country life federations will 
tend to solidify this new consolidated rural 
school district. 

New functions will be assumed. Under 
my direction investigations have been made 
concerning these rural schools during the 
past several years. Those of us who have 
been concerned with this investigation believe 
the consolidated rural school district is to 
generally take the place of the one-room 
school district. It is succeeding from Florida 
to New England and from the Atlantic Ocean 
to the Pacific. The new district provides 
conditions under which the organization of 
all phases of country life can be effected. 
Forty thousand of these country life consoli- 
dated schools will be required to take the 
place of the nearly three hundred thousand 
one-room rural schools. 

Nearly every question which has entered 



32 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

in your discussion today is to be greatly af- 
fected by this consolidation. The county 
Young Men's Christian Association and the 
Young Women's Christian Association, cen- 
tered at the county seat, can have at least 
committees at each of the twenty or thirty 
consolidated rural schools which make up the 
county system of country life schools. May 
we not expect that those who grow up asso- 
ciated with this Young Men's Christian 
Association and Young Women's Christian 
Association committee work, will eventually 
want a single union church centered at the 
same place as the school, so as to serve the 
same group of people as have become ac- 
quainted while together being educated in the 
public school? We need to make a few 
simple changes in the ecclesiastical arrange- 
ments of the Christian church so that this 
union may be made easy instead of retarded 
as it now is. 

Prof. Robert W. Veach : 

"What are the best courses of Bible study 
for working farmers?" 

This whole question involves the ideal 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 33 

reconstruction of country life. Any course 
of biblical study that would uplift the country 
must furnish that ideal; it must give a vision 
of what is to be. The vision must be seen in 
its large historic perspective. If I under- 
stand the Bible aright it means precisely that 
thing, the history of a great social reconstruc- 
tion, which seeks to develop those higher and 
finer religious ideals which purify and uplift 
society. Therefore the Bible course that will 
best fit this situation is, first of all, one that 
sees the Bible in its large historic perspec- 
tive. 

Another thought: We believe now that 
out of social life and out of the interactions 
of social life all our religious development 
is bound to take its character. Therefore 
we must look to the Bible for the basic prin- 
ciples of social reconstruction; that is, we 
must have a biblical sociology. For instance, 
I was in the country two years ago talking to 
a brilliant young minister, and he said, "I 
want to start a men's Bible class in my church, 
but I am waiting until the International Sun- 
day School Lessons get out of the Prophets." 
He failed utterly to see the relation between 



34 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

the social message of the Prophets and social 
reconstruction in country life. Instead of 
sociology crowding out the Bible in the semi- 
nary it must spring forth from the Bible if 
it is going to be vital. 

There are two psychological principles 
that should also determine the best course of 
Bible study for country life. The first is that 
the will is the central function in all religious 
development. Bible study should therefore 
seek to bring out those great moral principles 
that grip the will and bring the daily life into 
conformity to the highest ideals. The Bible 
is a book that grew up in God's great out-of- 
doors. The Ten Commandments were deliv- 
ered in the open air. Jesus drew His illus- 
trations largely from country life, from sky 
and hill and field. Bible study should there- 
fore seek to make country life conscious of 
the religious significance of its open-air envi- 
ronment. 

Another feature: When Jesus was using 
that great example of the Parable of the 
Tares He made one significant statement, 
"the good seed, these are the sons of the 
Kingdom." Truth through personality. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 35 

The personality of the teacher lies back of 
the success of every course of Bible study. 

Prof. Arthur S. Hoyt: 

I am a country boy myself, born on a farm 
and raised on a farm. For twenty years I 
have tried to teach theology. We need, first 
of all, men who will be systematic teachers 
of the people. The new scientific agriculture 
should demand on the part of the pulpit, not 
spasmodic evangelism, but a well-trained, 
systematic ministry, who will instruct the 
people in a scientific way in regard to Bible 
truths and the truths of life, and can quicken 
the intellectual life of the people. My own 
pastor has no less than thirty men who are 
widely known in commercial enterprises of 
this country. That is the result of a well- 
trained man to pass on intellectual and spirit- 
ual life to the service of the country. I have 
no fear of the introduction of sociology in 
the theological seminary. We need more of 
it, and not less. We need to cull out the old 
non-essential courses of our curriculum. We 
must give the young men the right attitude 
toward this and then send them out as social 



36 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

students to social service. Every seminary 
should have social training for theological 
students. 

Dr. Wilson: 

Let me say to the theological men present 
that four of the agricultural colleges will 
train your ministers this year in postgraduate 
courses. They are offering summer schools 
for country ministers. Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College had thirty ministers present 
last year. President Butterfield is equal to 
any man in the seminary in his value to the 
country minister. Michigan, Iowa and Kan- 
sas are doing this work well. The seminaries 
must recognize the need of scholarly train- 
ing in rural sociology, which these agricul- 
tural colleges are satisfying. 

What is needed is a training in the schol- 
arly study of religious phenomena. Religion 
is the product of group life, not of individual 
life. Long ago the Young Men's Christian 
Association recognized this principle and 
acted upon it. It is coming clearly to adopt 
it in its perfect organization. 

In the second place, the religion to be 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 37 

taught in our day must be that of adaptation 
to environment. Professor Carver said this 
summer, speaking to Association men, that 
the country church has the key to the problem 
of country life, because the universities have 
the body of knowledge, but the spirit to use 
that knowledge must be supplied by the 
churches. Almost all education has been 
secularized. We are confronted with secu- 
larization of religious education in this action 
of the agricultural colleges. At the head of 
the leading agricultural colleges of the North- 
ern and Eastern States are Christian men 
who are demanding the help of the churches 
in the spiritual leadership of country people. 
Their message is heard by the country 
churches today. In our discussion last year 
among Presbyterian churches I was able to 
use many agricultural college and university 
professors, but practically no professors in 
theological seminaries. These men in the 
agricultural colleges are concerned with the 
struggle of the farmer for survival. This 
struggle is affecting every situation in the 
country and every institution. It is for this 
struggle that the farmer needs religious help. 



38 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

If the theological seminaries will not give 
him help, he will get it elsewhere. The prob- 
lem before this conference is the question 
which confronts the farmer: "Is the country 
church worth while ?" u What is the function 
of the country church?" 

Dr. Hugh B. MacCauley: 

In my district of thirteen states, from 
Maine to West Virginia, I have an oppor- 
tunity to see the condition of things in the 
country in a way that is very broad. I am 
concerned with these questions as related to 
the formation of local federations. In the 
county seat of one of the most rural counties 
of one of my states, they told me that there 
were one hundred drunkards. I am prepared 
to believe that if there is any place which 
needs the remedy that Jesus Christ alone can 
give, that place is the country. What is 
needed more than anything else is that God's 
remedy for sin be pressed with power upon 
all members of the parish in the country dis- 
tricts by the country pastor. I yield to no 
one in believing that we should emphasize 
social service, but I also feel that the ques- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 39 

tions that pertain to the social service occupy 
a subordinate position. 

Now two things : It is not sectarian to im- 
press upon men that Jesus Christ is Lord and 
that He is the only Saviour whom God has 
provided for the sinner. It is not sectarian 
to claim that the Word of God is the only 
authority in matters of morals and religion. 
As we press home upon men the need of 
Christ, it is then and only then that we are 
going to get down to the roots of this diffi- 
culty which is so fearful. We ought to en- 
courage our country pastors to evangelize 
the country districts, and work through the 
school, grange, social service, etc., all splen- 
did arms of the main body, all fingers on the 
saving hand of the church. Beyond and be- 
hind all other means is the paramount duty 
of the country pastor to press home the need 
of Christ. We must maintain clearly before 
all minds and hearts the fact that Jesus Christ 
is the only hope and the only Saviour from 
sin, and the only guide. 

Prof. Charles R. Erdman: 

As the discussion has drifted toward the 



40 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

storm center of the theological seminary, and 
as I have the fortune or misfortune to serve 
one of these particular institutions, I may 
venture one or two remarks: First, as to 
sociology, it should be afforded a place in 
every theological curriculum and is already 
being taught in most of our seminaries, but 
the place must be a subordinate one. Amid 
the multiplicity of topics to be considered 
not much special treatment can be given to 
rural sociology, nor is it so much needed, as 
the large proportion of theological students 
come from the country and are familiar with 
rural conditions and problems. 

Secondly, this sociology must be definitely 
Christian. Some of the questions before us 
for debate might seem to imply that the be- 
lief in miracles or in all which is supernatural, 
is to be regarded as obsolete. Most of us 
believe in the supernatural and feel that only 
a religion which is definitely supernatural and 
truly Christian can form a true basis for so- 
ciology or for ethics. Such doctrines must 
be taught and are as readily received in the 
rural districts as in the cities. The supreme 
work of the church must ever be the teach- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 41 

ing of such revealed truth and the cultivation 
of resulting spiritual life. 

Prof. G. Walter Fiske : 

A word on the "sociology" issue. What- 
ever differences of opinion may be developed 
in the course of our discussions today, it 
seems to me we need not split on this propo- 
sition, for I do not believe there is any essen- 
tial difference in our fundamental meaning. 
No one of the speakers has in any sense pro- 
posed sociology as a substitute for the gospel. 
I think no one has ever claimed that you could 
save a man by sociology, any more than you 
can "give a man a bath by brushing his 
clothes." Social study gives a man a vision 
and a spirit and a method; but in no sense is 
it any substitute for the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

COUNTRY CHURCH FINANCES 
AND ADMINISTRATION 

Prof. Thomas Cuming Hall: 

My function is simply to raise the ques- 
tion which must be taken up next. Almost 
any of the questions might be answered by a 



42 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

still more fundamental question. If any one 
asks, "Has the country minister a living 
wage?" it is easy to ask the still more funda- 
mental question, "Has the country farmer a 
living wage?" In the long run the wages of 
a country minister will depend upon justice 
being done to the farmer. I think almost 
any thoughtful man in this country must 
admit that the farmer is bearing an undue 
burden of taxation, and the country minister 
suffers with him on this account. And yet 
this question is but part of a still larger ques- 
tion concerning the distribution of all the 
products of human toil. 

Again, if it is asked, "Why do rural lay- 
men manage so badly?" it is easy to retort, 
"Why do we all manage so badly?" "Why 
does the city manage so badly?" "Why does 
the state manage so badly?" The question 
is, in fact, very fundamental. Now one diffi- 
culty in the financial management of the 
country church is the lack of proper church 
federation. And what is the difficulty in the 
way of church federation? At bottom, I am 
sorry to say, it is all too often a selfish prop- 
erty interest. We are face to face then with 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 43 

one of the most serious questions of our own 
day. 

My interest in the financial management 
of the country church arises out of my part 
in the endeavor to attain local autonomy in 
the financial management of the churches 
under the Home Mission committee of my 
denomination in the western section of our 
land. Several of us in early days struggled 
hard to get state independence on the Home 
Mission field. This was not because we did 
not believe that the financial wisdom of the 
central committee was not properly superior 
to the financial wisdom of local churches; but 
because it is more important that a man make 
his own mistakes, and learn his own lessons 
from his mistakes, than that he be success- 
fully and wisely guided even by omniscience. 
It is God's plan to let us make our own mis- 
takes and suffer for them. What the country 
church needs is autonomy and at the same 
time wise counsel and guidance so far as that 
can be given without interfering with its 
autonomy. Every one of our denominations 
is in danger of making a mistake in the 
financing of a country church. And the mis- 



44 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

take lies in challenging the local autonomy 
in the endeavor to supply the guidance which 
undoubtedly young churches need. This 
challenge is sometimes by centralized govern- 
ment, as in the Roman Catholic and Episco- 
pal and in some instances the Methodist 
churches, in other cases there is an indirect 
challenge through societies that control the 
collection and distribution of benevolent 
funds. But the evil is mainly done in teach- 
ing the country church the fatal lesson of 
constantly receiving rather than giving. The 
church should be constantly rather a dis- 
penser than a receiver, I would, there- 
fore, rather prefer relative inefficiency in the 
financial arrangements of an autonomous 
church, than high efficiency and churches de- 
pendent upon a central organization. Hence, 
one of the ideals must be to get the country 
church self-sustaining on however modest a 
scale; and where this is not possible, to give 
only such supplementary support as may be 
absolutely necessary, and to give that support 
in such a way that the local autonomy will be 
as little undermined as possible. 

I cannot but try to point out that one of 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 45 

the reasons why the finances of a country 
church are a difficulty is that our whole sys- 
tem of taxation is making for the extension 
of our cities and the relative impoverishment 
of the country. Hence the finances of the 
country church are but a part of the great 
question of the uneven distribution of our 
national wealth, and we have a direct interest 
not only in a science of a new society, but 
in a science of a new Christian society. The 
complete rebuilding of a reconstructed so- 
ciety is a large task, but only when the bur- 
dens of life are more evenly distributed will 
it be possible for the country church to do its 
work unhampered. A step in this recon- 
struction is, of course, the federation of 
country churches. This will have to be made 
on the basis of some doctrinal compromise; 
but the most important and most difficult 
compromises will be the compromises in the 
community interests, compromises in social 
arrangements, such compromises as grow 
out of the struggle to learn how men and 
women may live together in love that is 
heavenly, a love of one another because we 
are the erring children of one Father, Who 



46 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

has called us to love as men and women and 
brethren. 

Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root : 

There are ministers who are leaving the 
ministry. In one Massachusetts Congrega- 
tional Association four men left within the 
past year. Why do they leave ? In the first 
place they leave because of the small salary. 
They are unable to educate their children. I 
know one, however, able to earn far more, 
who returned to the ministry for a less in- 
come. But a deeper reason is that they feel 
that in spite of all of the sacrifices, they 
are not working for the Kingdom of God. 
Several of these ministers who left this Con- 
gregational body in Massachusetts did so 
because while working under such conditions 
of church competition they felt that they were 
simply wasting their lives. The only solution 
is that pointed out by Dr. Hall — the federa- 
tion of local churches. In Massachusetts we 
have made an investigation of one hundred 
smaller towns, classified as one, two, and 
three-church towns. Among these groups we 
took ten towns of equal population. They 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT M 

were selected for this reason simply. Then 
the statistics of the churches selected were 
compared. Salaries declined from $842 in 
the average one-church town to $483 in the 
three-church town. The three-church town 
received ten times as much home missionary 
aid as the one-church town. In view of these 
facts is it not perfectly evident that there is 
no solution for the country church question 
as long as we multiply churches in small com- 
munities? Is it not ridiculous to attempt to 
maintain more than one church for a popula- 
tion of one thousand or less? 

Rev. Paul Martin : 

As secretary of a theological seminary and 
so in touch with students and younger min- 
isters seeking churches and with churches 
seeking ministers I speak on the country 
church problem. There was a time ten or 
twenty years ago when the farmers were 
generally in hard straits financially, but in 
large sections of the country this is no longer 
true. Crops have been large, prices good; 
mortgages have been paid off ; the automobile 
manufacturers report large sales to farmers. 



48 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Not long since I attended a conference of the 
officers of a country church to which the 
fifteen men came in one buggy and three auto- 
mobiles, and the wealthiest man present did 
not have occasion to use his; but they were 
not equal to devising liberal things for their 
church. There is often money enough in 
the rural church; the further economic de- 
velopment of the resources of the farm may 
be safely left to the activities of the agricul- 
tural department, the agricultural college and 
like influences. The country people need 
training in the more liberal and wiser expen- 
ditures of their money on the church and its 
associated work. 

A larger church unit is a needed step 
toward the solution of the country church 
problem. There are too many churches in 
our rural communities, in their rivalry each 
eking out a meager existence and living at 
a poor dying rate. Dividing a field not too 
large for one church and minister, they fail 
to give sufficient support to the several 
pastors, not merely in salary, but in equip- 
ment, workers and congregation to bring out 
the best in the minister or to make the work 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 49 

of the church effective. The community does 
not truly respect the minister who is content 
to occupy the third or the fourth of what is 
properly one man's field; and not being able 
to maintain his own full self-respect in it, he 
becomes discouraged and restless. Theo- 
logical students and ministers are not afraid 
of work or hardship — witness that they can 
be secured for foreign or city missions far 
more readily than for rural church work. 
This is especially true of the stronger men in 
the seminaries. 

A first necessity in the solution of the rural 
church problem is the amalgamation of the 
little rival churches of the village or neigh- 
boring hamlets into one church large enough 
and strong enough to give permanent scope 
for a strong, well-trained ministry; with 
vitality enough to maintain itself with dignity, 
and with energy to spare for aggressive 
Christian service to the community, for the 
evangelization of the stranger within the 
gates and for participation in the great work 
of the church for the evangelization of the 
world. 



50 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Rev. Wilbert L. Anderson : 

Just a word from the point of view of the 
agricultural colleges that have taken the lead 
in making some suggestions in regard to 
church work and ministerial training. Now 
it is not any thought of the agricultural col- 
lege that the college should supersede the 
seminary in the teaching of the great truths 
of the Christian religion, but it is the thought 
of the agricultural college that there is a 
great new movement coming on in country 
life, and that persons who are interested in 
that great new development call to the 
country church for help. 

As I conceive it we are coming to a crisis 
in this matter, a crisis not so much for rural 
prosperity as for the Christian church. 
When the Christian church responds to these 
calls and provides the leadership that is de- 
manded, then it makes good its opportunity 
for generations to come. If you limit the 
teaching by the pastors in the country church 
to religious doctrines, however true they may 
be conceived in the older spirit, sympathy for 
the life of the people may limit your financial 
support of the church to a small portion of 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 51 

the population. Just at this point this topic 
matches on with the one that went before. 
What is wanted is that the country minister 
should be sympathetic with this new move- 
ment of country life, that he should under- 
stand and appreciate it. As a trained theo- 
logian, he will face the truth as other theo- 
logians do. We still are loyal to the truth 
and not altogether pragmatists. The demand 
is that the country minister shall understand 
rural life, and when he does that sympa- 
thetically, he will gather to the church new 
support. If the country church will respond 
to this cause and give its vital message to the 
people, there will gather to the church the 
support due. The country minister is per- 
haps the only one in command of the forces 
that can solve these problems. What shall 
bring them together? The gospel of Jesus 
Christ, the gospel of love, the gospel, if you 
please, of love even to the extent of the 
atoning cross, — that is the necessary solvent 
of the irritation and antagonism that prevent 
the social development of our rural com- 
munities. What we want is that the church 
shall understand that gospel of love. We 



52 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

want the country church to furnish ideals to 
the community. Making these adjustments, 
the community church can be supported in 
nine cases in ten without outside help. 

COUNTRY COMMUNITY BUILDING 

Prof. Edwin L. Earp : 

The general topic is "Country Community 
Building." I will attempt in a general way to 
speak on the subject of community building as 
related to the church. I think we all feel 
that one of the hardest fields in the church 
work today is the rural church community. 
The hardest missionary fields today are the 
lost home fields, and the country church 
represents one of those fields. I think that 
as one goes back to his home community 
where there once thrived under his denomi- 
nation a country church and sees the building 
now dilapidated and very little work going 
on, he feels that the country church problem 
for him is a vital one. I can give the reasons 
why we have not a successful church com- 
munity life in my own state, and in my own 
country district. I think that as I have fol- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 53 

lowed it since I left school and gone back on 
vacations, the real reason why we have not 
a successful country church is not that we 
have not as many people there as formerly, 
but that while the character of the population 
has changed somewhat, yet the character of 
the methods of meeting the religious and 
social needs of the community have changed 
very little. Furthermore, the men who are 
sent to man these churches (I speak for my 
own denomination) are, because of their 
training, often unfit for the mastery of the 
problems of the country districts. In a con- 
ference the other day, following the discus- 
sion of a paper, I related this : a farmer told 
me they had a minister in his neighborhood 
who hadn't get-up enough in him to eat the 
fried chicken they offered him. 

I think one of the most essential things in 
the whole problem of the country church is 
to have clearly in mind a program for com- 
munity work that will be put into the course 
of training for the men who are to be sent 
into the country. I hope the time will come 
when we will make an appeal direct, and 
make provision in our theological semina- 



54 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

ries; an appeal that will move men to invest 
their lives in the work of the country com- 
munity as they are moved now to invest their 
lives in the foreign field, or in the so-called 
slum districts of our cities, or to man the 
bigger churches in every community. To do 
this we have got to put the emphasis on a 
new kind of minister, which I like to call the 
religious-social-engineer, for if there is any 
place where we need a community of inter- 
ests, it is in the country where the financial 
support has not yet been put upon a paying 
basis. It seems to me that the first essen- 
tial is to have a community plan and to have 
the call of a man who is willing to make a 
sacrifice, even like Paul, be a "tent-maker" 
at his own expense, until he can build up a 
constituency in the country districts that will 
support his movements in ministering to that 
community in every phase of its economic, 
social and religious life. 

It is not so hard to get money in a country 
community as it may seem, because the coun- 
try is not so poor as it may appear. I was in 
the West this summer, and was given more 
automobile rides in the central part of Kan- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 55 

sas by farmers than I have ever had around 
my home section, inhabited by millionaires. 
I see no difficulty if I were to re-enter the 
pastorate (and I may do it) in succeeding 
in a community like that, for I think it would 
be an easy thing for one to get those splendid 
farmers to rally to him and help minister to 
the life of the whole county. It should be 
our aim, however, to get some central organi- 
zation that would minister to the whole 
county's needs. It would be harder in states 
like New York and New Jersey to do this 
because of the character of the roads. One 
of the questions we have to consider in the 
country is how to secure better roads. It 
seems to me that we must have first of all a 
man who is educated for the community life 
of church work. I made this suggestion in 
a question that I offered in response to the 
correspondence sent out previous to this con- 
ference, and it was, "Shall the community 
social center substitute the old circuit 
system?" 

In one of the counties of my own state I 
once served six appointments of a circuit that 
had twelve. Six of those appointments, 



56 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

scattered in out-of-the-way places, were then 
thinking how they could build a church out 
on the main road as a central church to the 
whole community. The people should be 
educated to make the church, itself, the center 
of activity, and I think the farmers could be 
made willing to give up their property inter- 
ests and prejudices for the establishment of 
a central building that would correspond to 
what the Young Men's Christian Association 
is in some of the counties of New York 
State; from this central bureau all points 
could be served and a man big enough to 
understand his job could be put in charge 
for a lifetime. Another point is the interest 
that the farmer himself and the farmer's 
wife and his children would have in such a 
center, where they can feel they are some- 
body, rather than be off in a small commu- 
nity by themselves. 

Mr. Hays : 

There is a constant discussion of church 
federation and of church union and of organ- 
izing around centers. Those of us who have 
been especially working with the consolidated 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 57 

rural school, believing that that center is 
practically coming, expect the country church 
to be placed at the same center, both as a 
matter of economy and as a matter of effi- 
ciently serving the recentered rural com- 
munity. The people of this larger district 
will all know each other. When you have a 
large community thus organized into various 
associations, each with power to send dele- 
gates to county meetings, county associations, 
and able to pay the expenses of these dele- 
gates, effective county organizations and co- 
operation will be secured. The county 
country life federation, for example, will be 
practicable. Each local or consolidated rural 
district association, as the dairy association, 
the horticultural association, the women's 
club and the poultry keepers' club, will be 
able to send a delegate to the county federa- 
tion. These different local organizations will 
doubtless also in many cases have county 
associations, as county dairy associations, 
county women's clubs, etc. These county 
organizations will also naturally be repre- 
sented by delegates to the county country life 
federation, where all the consolidated rural 



58 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

school district associations and the county 
country life organizations can send delegates. 
We need simple systems of country life 
organization and of church organization. 
The Young Men's Christian Association with 
its center at the county seat is building up an 
effective scheme of cooperative work and 
promises to become a great power in many 
counties. It is suggested that around some 
similar plan of organization the country 
church can be so organized that it will thrive. 
It may be that the Young Men's Christian 
Association will be able to help federate all 
churches in the county, or at least to have a 
representative federation based on all the 
churches in the county, with which federation 
local country union churches may have their 
primal ecclesiastical connection. Some such 
scheme can doubtless be worked out so that 
we may have in the country union churches 
which may have a church relation to all the 
people in the rural community. Our present 
system of church organization makes church 
union very awkward and too often tempo- 
rary. If the denominational state and federal 
bodies would deal fairly with the rural com- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 59 

munity let them federate their rural church 
denominational interests. Possibly this can 
be done through some sort of a county de- 
nominational federation which will serve as 
an ecclesiastical holding company, to borrow 
a phrase from the business world. 

Dr. Hob art : 

I have no hostility to sociological teaching 
in seminaries provided it is based on the New 
Testament. I teach it myself. Our confer- 
ence today is in reference to country churches. 
I doubt very much whether we shall make any 
progress if we say any outside organization 
is competent to make them do their work 
right. Our inquiry is, what, as country 
churches, can they do on the basis of their 
constitution and in line with their work? 
What religious service is needed? First, the 
New Testament teaches us that our Saviour 
prayed that we may all be one. We all feel 
that it is wrong to be divided. We should 
inquire earnestly whether the differences are 
vital; whether they are such that we cannot 
maintain the Sabbath together or lie down 
together in the cemetery. I belong to one of 



60 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

those narrow churches, supposed by some of 
you to be the most narrow of all denomina- 
tions, the Baptist. I have been active for 
several years in this business. The last five 
years I have been hard at work helping to 
get Baptists and Free Baptists together. We 
have succeeded in the. formal work. It will 
be a good while before all will get together in 
some places, but it is decreed and will come. 
No new "Free" Baptist churches will be 
formed, nor any "regular" ones, but all are 
Baptists. I did not have anything to do with 
creating the spirit of union. It existed. I 
was simply the channel through which the 
great movement acted, all I had to do was to 
adjust matters so that they ran smoothly. 

There is a great deal of wisdom in the 
way these questions are stated. We cannot 
get rid of federation and ultimate consolida- 
tion. If you believe in these things you must 
consolidate. But, of course, we meet diffi- 
culties. How shall we overcome them? 
There are financial difficulties. I was pastor 
of a church that had a building costing 
$160,000. The articles of faith were in- 
corporated in the deeds. We will get to- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 61 

gether, not by denying the other fellow his 
right, but by saying, u Let us have a platform 
broad enough and high enough for all to 
stand on without any man giving up his con- 
victions." We can never confederate well 
until we stand on a common platform. 

Dr. E. B. Sanford: 

There is a man in this audience who has 
achieved remarkable results in federating the 
Christian forces of a rural community. Four 
or five years ago Mr. Wells graduated from 
Drew Seminary. He began work up in Ver- 
mont in a mountain town where conditions 
were discouraging. He found there three 
churches not one of them able to support a 
pastor and all asking for outside aid. With 
rare wisdom and tact he secured the interest 
of the members of these churches in con- 
sidering the advisability of uniting their 
forces. Articles were drawn up and agree- 
ments were made by which they came to- 
gether. By unanimous decision inasmuch as 
the Baptist church was the largest in re- 
sources and membership, the others came and 
gathered around it, under a simple but effec- 



62 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

tive plan of affiliation, and today that church 
is in a real sense a prosperous community 
church in the town of Lincoln. What has 
been done there can be done elsewhere. 

Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root : 

An example of the need of community 
building. In the rural half of Rhode Island, 
in a strip twelve miles wide next to the Con- 
necticut line, it was estimated a few years 
ago that out of fifty-nine church buildings, 
only nine had resident pastors. What is the 
secret of the decline of that region? One 
reason is that the Rhode Island towns were 
laid out in big rectangles without any church 
center — mere political divisions. The church 
ideally ought to be the center of a community. 
The churches of Western Rhode Island are 
small and often only one or two miles apart. 
Denominationalism has failed to meet the 
situation. Only by cooperation can the de- 
nominations meet the need of community 
building. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 63 

NOON RECESS 

After adjournment of the morning session 
the delegates became very much interested 
in an exhibit which the International County 
Work Department had displayed. There 
was a Country Life book shelf, which in- 
cluded the latest books on various phases of 
country life; then there was a prolific dis- 
play of the agricultural press covering the 
entire country; there were a number of 
charts showing the rural aspects of various 
states and the possibilities of organizing 
rural life as it is being pursued by the Young 
Men's Christian Association. Photographs 
of rural play picnics and athletics; printed 
matter from the departments at Washing- 
ton; census department reports and exten- 
sion bulletins from the various agricultural 
colleges helped to make this exhibit most 
illuminating. There was a conference pho- 
tograph taken on the roof of the building, 
after which the delegates joined in an in- 
formal but most profitable noontime lunch- 
eon at the Park Avenue Hotel with Dr. Mc- 
Alpin as their host. The very informality 



64 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

of it did much to acquaint the delegates one 
with the other. 

AFTERNOON SESSION 

Prof. James McConaughy offered prayer. 

COOPERATION AND INTEGRATION 
OF COMMUNITY INSTITU- 
TIONS 

Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield: 

Two problems are suggested by this topic, 
"Cooperation and Integration of Country 
Community Institutions." The first problem 
is that of the integration of the church. I 
suppose that theoretically this ought not to 
be a problem; the church ought to present a 
united front. But practically, of course, this 
unity is a crying need of most rural com- 
munities. I know of no better statement of 
this problem than that made by Mr. Root of 
the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Federa- 
tions of Churches — "consolidation some- 
where, cooperation everywhere." In this 
matter of "cooperation everywhere," which 
probably for the next generation will be the 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 65 

more important of these two phases of 
church integration (because the consolidation 
of churches is bound to move rather slowly 
when we look at the country as a whole), we 
must call both for a pretty definite program 
of country church work, and a pretty definite 
program of cooperation among churches. 
The time has arrived when some church body, 
or some conference made up of representa- 
tives of church bodies, ought to make a care- 
ful study of the needs and conditions in our 
average rural communities in America, for 
the purpose of outlining in a general way, a 
practical plan of cooperation among country 
churches. Our country church work awaits 
just that sort of program. There are plenty 
of men who are coming to see this need. 
There are many who see the need who do 
not quite know what to do. Let me say, too, 
that we need a new spirit in many communi- 
ties — a real spirit of cooperation. 

The second problem of integration is the 
problem of bringing together into a coopera- 
tive work the various institutions and forces 
of the community. Now for this three things 
are necessary. First, we ought to have a 



66 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

definition, that may be fairly well accepted 
by workers in country communities whether 
in the church or out of it, of the prime func- 
tion of each one of the institutions of com- 
munity life. This function ought to be de- 
fined in terms of the community life. 

We have heard a great deal of discussion 
in the past ten years about the social function 
of the school. Yet we are, I think, still lack- 
ing a sufficient definition of the function of 
the rural school expressed in terms of the 
community aim, and expressed in such a way 
that there may easily follow a program for 
that school expressing the community func- 
tion. With other social institutions like the 
church it is the same, even including the 
family. We are in great need in this country 
of an institution or institutions which have 
for their definite objective the study of the 
conditions and problems of farm home life, 
not merely the matter of home management, 
or home keeping, but the fundamental rela- 
tionships of the family to the development 
of a better community life in our rural 
regions. 

We will have then, first of all, a definition 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 67 

of the prime functions of the institutions of 
the rural community in terms of the commu- 
nity life, aim or spirit. In the second place, 
we must secure a real federation of the forces 
of the community. Now there are at least 
three ways in which this may be brought 
about. It may be done under the direct 
leadership of some one institution or organi- 
zation. The church may do it. The county 
Young Men's Christian Association may do 
it. In some communities already the central- 
ized school is doing it. In the State of Wash- 
ington there is projected an institution called 
the Country Life School, and one of its main 
features is to bring together people of the 
community for all sorts of purposes, and 
consequently to integrate the institutions of 
the community in behalf of a general com- 
munity life. It may be that the rural libra- 
ries in some regions, as in some towns in 
Massachusetts, may be the integrating force. 
That is one way to bring this about. 

A second method is to establish a new 
organization (we may call it what we please) , 
but it will be an organization definitely for 
the promotion of the social life of the com- 



68 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

munity. It will be a civic league, or a com- 
munity league, an institution made up of 
individuals who may and very likely will 
represent the different institutions and 
agencies and associations of the community, 
but which is a new organization entirely dis- 
tinct from anything else, and which attempts 
to do all its work on a community basis, which 
sets a community goal, tries to improve com- 
munity standards, endeavors to develop com- 
munity spirit, and seeks to give common direc- 
tion to the efforts of all the institutions of the 
community. 

A third method is to bring together repre- 
sentatives of existing institutions in their 
representative capacity and to form a sort of 
committee, or board, or league, or federa- 
tion, or clearing house, made up of accredited 
representatives from all of the institutions 
and agencies of the town or community — 
whatever the community elements may be. 

Now, it seems to me that we may well 
expect that each one of these three methods 
of integration of rural social institutions may 
be utilized. I am partial to the last one 
because, theoretically, the ideal is not to mul- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 69 

tiply organizations, but to bring together the 
organizations that now exist. Moreover, the 
idea of community life, the definition or func- 
tion of these different institutions, is simpli- 
fied and aided by this representative principle, 
this principle of federation. 

Recently a criticism was made of this idea 
by a foremost social worker in Massachusetts 
who said that experience had shown that this 
principle of representative federative organi- 
zation was not practical in city work. Of 
course our work in rural districts is yet too 
new for us to say whether it will succeed. In 
Massachusetts, however, we have two or 
three movements based on this principle of a 
representative committee made up of dele- 
gates from all the different social organiza- 
tions in the community. I think that as a 
practical matter, however, a great many cases 
will exist where the church, or some existing 
organization, will take this leadership and 
will do the work. 

The third suggestion in regard to this 
matter of integration is to develop a com- 
munity program and to secure a general com- 
munity center. We need to preach to our 



70 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

people in the country the idea of community 
ideals, community standards and community 
purposes. We need to supplement the idea 
of individual responsibility and initiative and 
success with the idea of community interests 
and success. Sooner or later we must come 
to have an institution, a building (it may be 
the church, or the school, or the town hall, 
or a special building) , but we need something 
that people can see, a place where they can 
gather, and where all these ideals of the com- 
munity and all the forces that make for inte- 
gration can actually meet in common and 
there discuss and plan for the common wel- 
fare. . 

Dr. William H. Allison : 

In the use of existing agencies we want 
what from one point of view may be called a 
new institution, and yet from another point 
of view is no new institution at all. We are 
overworking the word "new." We are 
speaking about a new theology, new Bible, 
new this, that and the other. Yet may I 
suggest another new thing, .a new church, a 
new ecclesiology, and I believe we are moving 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 71 

toward it. I happen to belong to a congre- 
gational denomination, a body which is learn- 
ing a few things through experience and see- 
ing that there is a larger idea of the church 
that is demanding recognition from us. It 
seems to me we are drawn together through 
the various ecclesiastical organizations. We 
are recognizing that there is such a thing as 
a local community growth. We are also 
recognizing that there is the church universal 
that is not merely an ideal but a reality. Now 
as we are speaking of the church as a factor 
in the community, how are we looking upon 
it? As being merely one of several existing 
agencies to be placed alongside of the school, 
grange and so forth? If so, I think we are 
doing an injustice to the church. There is a 
larger idea of the church. What I would like 
to see would be the recognition of a church 
that is not to be placed merely alongside of 
other existing institutions in a local com- 
munity, but a church whose religious power 
and efficiency and spirit shall transfuse every 
institution that exists in the community. It 
is for this larger conception of the church and 
this conception of the vital relationship be- 



72 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

tween the local body and the church universal 
that I would plead. 

We have been speaking of individualism 
and the social law and forces as though they 
were two separate things ; it seems to me that 
they ought to be fused into one, though we 
may, for purposes of discussion, separate 
the one from the other. When we come to 
the reality they are so united we cannot 
separate them. And so when we think of 
the various forces at work in any given com- 
munity, let us bear in mind that there is a 
great church whose spirit must transfuse 
and infuse the whole life of the community. 

Dr. E. B. Sanford: 

I am in full sympathy with the spirit of 
this conference, but I desire to say a word 
with a certain sense of special responsibility 
as secretary of the Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America. Just a word 
regarding the third point under discussion, 
u Is the Young Men's Christian Association 
or the Federal Council of the Churches of 
Christ in America the agency for federating 
churches and institutions ?" 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 73 

I am thankful that we have lived to see the 
hour when nearly if not quite two thirds of 
the evangelical Protestant church life of the 
United States is constitutionally federated. 
Three men present in this conference are 
today giving their services at this time in the 
care of work directed, and financially sup- 
ported, by this official council of the churches. 

I rejoice in all that the Young Men's 
Christian Association has accomplished in the 
interest of Christian unity and cooperation. 
Let us, however, never lose sight of the fact 
that the church, of which Christ is the head, 
cannot delegate to other agencies its special 
mission of caring for the spiritual need of 
every community. 

I am glad to take part in a conference like 
this that calls us to consider our mutual re- 
sponsibility as well as the limitations of our 
activities. In this presence I do not hesitate 
to affirm my conviction that the Federal 
Council officially representing the churches, 
holding to evangelical and historical Chris- 
tianity, should be the chief agency in federat- 
ing the churches and affiliated institutions. I 
gladly bear testimony to the aid which the 



74 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Young Men's Christian Association is giving 
us in this work, especially in affording the use 
of its assembly rooms as a place for confer- 
ence and business meetings. It seems to me 
that the secretaries of local Associations are 
in a position to render most effective aid in 
the work of interchurch federation. 

Rev. W. Russell Collins : 

I believe most heartily in the Federal 
Council and in the Young Men's Christian 
Association. I am not much in sympathy 
with the great outcry that is being made for 
organic church unity. I believe that the 
church, the Holy Catholic Church, the church 
of Jesus Christ is one, never will be divided. 
Christ is not divided and the church is not 
divided. The church is divided into families 
which have their own preference as to mode 
of worship, and these families do sometimes 
get one into the way of the other in the 
course of their work, and to prevent that is 
the subject of our discussion. Illustrations 
sometimes afford solutions of problems. I 
was told the other day of a very happy solu- 
tion of this problem in a little town. In this 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 75 

town there were three churches, Methodist, 
Baptist and Congregational, and in the course 
of time these three once prosperous churches 
lost a great deal of help and became weak 
and faulty. Finally, a Congregational min- 
ister went to the Congregational church to 
seek retirement and ease, but found more 
work than he had expected. A little later on 
the Baptist church found itself without a 
pastor, and in the course of time the Metho- 
dist church was also without a pastor. Now 
these three churches came together in the 
conclusion that the town was not large 
enough for three large churches, and in the 
spirit of the Federal Council they came to- 
gether. They concluded they would adopt 
the pastor of the Congregational church and 
use as the house of worship the Baptist 
church, taking as the parish house the Con- 
gregational church, and would sell the pro- 
perty of the Methodist church and turn its 
funds into general church support. There 
is a solution of one problem. 

Now if that town should go one step 
further instead of using the Congregational 
church as a parish house, would adopt the 



76 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Young Men's Christian Association and the 
Young Women's Christian Association and 
give them the social work and secular duties, 
and leave the church to minister and preach, 
we would have the ideal state of church com- 
munity. Organic unity will never come. I 
doubt if it ever could come otherwise, but 
federation of the churches in this manner 
answers, I think, the questions we are trying 
to solve. 

Prof. E. O. Fippin: 

The question is raised by this conference 
as to whether the same standards which are 
applied in city organization are applicable to 
the country organization of religious work; 
if the same principles apply, are the same 
methods to be used? It seems to me that the 
same principles of religious teaching are 
applicable in the country and city, but that the 
methods of operation must be totally differ- 
ent. 

One coming from a college of agriculture 
to a gathering of this sort would not presume 
to discuss theological phases of the question. 
I am here because the problem has technical 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 77 

and business relations different from those 
which most of us know in the city. 

It is perhaps the function of the agricul- 
tural college man to call attention to some of 
these limitations in rural Christian work 
which must be taken into consideration. We 
would also direct attention to another fact, 
which we are inclined to overlook, namely 
that our point of departure should be the 
purpose to be attained and not the perpetua- 
tion of any institution. 

The functions to be performed in country 
life are two : one of these is economic; it must 
provide for the physical existence of the 
individual. He must have the means to live, 
just as this conference rests fundamentally 
upon the people who participate having funds 
to enable them to reach the place and some 
one providing these quarters. 

The first factor which must be solved is a 
financial one — that of giving to the country 
man more adequate maintenance. 

The economic difficulties are of three sorts, 
and we as individuals concerned with the 
rural problem must take these into account in 
endeavoring to put the rural residents on a 



78 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

more independent basis. First, they must be 
able to produce things; second, they must 
have a market for their produce and means 
of reaching that market, and third, there 
must be a reasonable margin of profit from 
the market price, above cost of production. 
Until you have these fundamental elements 
on which the family or the institution rests, 
you cannot possibly expect to have an effi- 
cient church or Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation. While prices may seem good, it is 
pretty definitely settled that farming as a 
business is not as prosperous as it ought to be. 
The other function of country life is asso- 
ciative living. People must not only have the 
physical necessities of life, but they must asso- 
ciate with each other, and they must have cer- 
tain standards of honesty and outlook. There 
is an ethical problem, a life problem, a social 
problem involved. In the country, more than 
in the city, there is an intimate connection 
between social and religious affairs, and the 
purely business affairs. One cannot be 
carried on independently of the other. One 
is limited or assisted by the other. The prob- 
lem of deepening the religious life of the 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 79 

country, whether in young or old, must be 
linked with their financial and social better- 
ment. Our system of technical training has 
been deficient in not providing enough for 
the associative functions of life, and the de- 
velopment of these latter has been largely 
controlled by the physical limitations. The 
farmer no more than the city man can be 
reached in a missionary spirit — not if he 
knows it. Any system which reaches him 
must show its sympathy for his position, and 
intelligently help him to better his physical 
life, at the same time that it leads him out 
along lines of greater spiritual activity. The 
rural social worker has the opportunity as 
well as the necessity of coordinating these and 
must especially recognize the business end of 
the proposition in its broadest lines. 

Prof. Edwin L. Earp : 

The problem of integrating the social 
institutions of the different rural communities 
(discussed by Dr. Butterfield) is going to be 
an educational problem for theological 
schools and agricultural colleges to deal with, 
for these institutions have within their halls 



80 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

of learning those who are to be leaders in 
community life. As an increasing number of 
men from the country are going to college, it 
seems that we ought to recommend that many 
of our secondary schools, our agricultural 
colleges and theological schools as well as 
the universities, should have courses that 
would embody the ideas that have been 
brought out in this discussion, as to how we 
may organize a social center that would be 
the result of the integration of all these social 
activities, and yet maintain the integrity of 
each different institution. I will be glad as 
one, if somebody in authority will authorize 
me to do it, to introduce a course in rural 
sociology in order to train men specifically 
for this field. We ought to send somebody 
out into our colleges and universities to call 
men, or to give them a motive force, to go 
into this field as a matter of life investment, 
not as a makeshift to get into a bigger church 
in the city, but to stay in the country for a 
lifetime if necessary and make the country 
church a paying institution. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 81 

THE FUNCTION OF THE COUNTRY 
CHURCH 

Professor Fiske : 

I realize that in so varied a company as 
this, with every important stripe of theo- 
logical opinion and social sympathy repre- 
sented, this subject of the function of the 
church is a very delicate question! How 
significant it is, that, in the twentieth century, 
Christians are still debating the function of 
the church! We have not yet settled the 
question as to what is "our Father's busi- 
ness." Some of us here are high churchmen, 
perhaps, with the high church idea of the 
church as the custodian of the sacraments, the 
sole channels of divine grace. Others possi- 
bly are very low churchmen, with the notion 
of the church as merely one sort of social 
service club. I wish to avoid both extremes 
and place myself frankly on the broad church 
basis. Let me offer as a working definition 
of the church, whether in city or country, the 
primary agency for human welfare. 

No amount of unfavorable criticism can 
refute the fact that the country church is 



82 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

easily the most essential institution in country 
life. Criticise it as we may for its inefficiency, 
it is to the country church that we must look 
to save the country. Even though it may be 
usually a struggling institution, inadequately 
equipped, poorly financed, narrow in its con- 
ception of its mission, slow in responding to 
the progressive spirit of the age, wasting its 
resources in fruitless competitions and often 
crude in its theology and ineffective in its 
leadership — nevertheless it is blessing mil- 
lions of our people, and remains still the one 
supreme institution for social and religious 
betterment. It may be criticised, pitied, ridi- 
culed. It has not yet been displaced. 

I think Dr. Anderson is entirely correct 
when he says, in The Country Town: u The 
community needs nothing so much as a 
church, to interpret life ; to diffuse a common 
standard of morals ; to plead for the common 
interest ; to inculcate unselfishness, neighborli- 
ness, cooperation; to uphold ideals and to 
stand for the supremacy of the spirit. In the 
depleted town with shattered institutions and 
broken hopes, in the perplexity of changing 
times, in the perils of degeneracy, the church 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 83 

is the vital center which is to be saved at any 
cost. In the readjustments of the times, the 
country church has suffered; but if in its 
sacrifices it has learned to serve the com- 
munity, it lives and will live." 

If I w r ere to condense diagnosis and pre- 
scription into a single sentence, I would sug- 
gest this : The country church has become de- 
cadent where it has ceased to serve its com- 
munity; and it may find its largest life again 
in the broadest kind of sacrificial service. 

In all life problems the fundamental matter 
is personality. We have repeatedly dis- 
covered, in our discussions today, that our 
fundamental problem in this whole matter of 
the country church is the problem of leader- 
ship. Given the finest kind of leadership, the 
problem would solve itself. The difficulty is 
securing and training the right sort of leaders 
for the country churches. On the average, 
they are far from adequate to meet their task 
today. I suggest that two things must be 
guaranteed before you can expect the highest 
leadership in our country ministry. These 
two items are a united church and a broader 
scope for the church's influence; that is, a 



84 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

greater leverage for the country minister, a 
sufficient opportunity to attract our strongest, 
finest men. Today such men are avoiding the 
country parsonages, because they are looking 
for a real field and do not propose to get 
pocketed in a hole. 

Subquestion three under my main topic is 
one I am almost ashamed to take your time 
for, it is so rudimentary. Yet it is essential. 
"Is the country community better served by 
a single church or a plurality of churches ?" 
Theological convictions no longer, to any 
extent, separate the churches. Wealth, social 
standing, differences in taste and tempera- 
ment as well as mere habit, account for most 
local church affiliations today. City condi- 
tions may justify this for the present, but in 
depleted country sections such wasteful split- 
ting up of meager Christian forces is a 
blunder and a crime. 

The argument that churches need the stim- 
ulus of competition is very superficial. 
There is plenty of stimulus in their big task, 
as soon as they frankly and honestly face it. 
Anyway, competition is not "the life of 
trade." It is always wasteful, compared with 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 85 

the economy and profit in consolidation and 
concentration. 

If in union there is not strength; and if 
friction means increased power, then several 
little churches are better than one. 

If church rivalries and quarrels are needed 
to promote the peace of the community; if 
three church buildings, unattractive and un- 
painted, and bristling with mutual hostility, 
are more impressive in the warfare with evil 
than one adequate church home, the center of 
the united faith of a community; if three half- 
starved, poorly educated ministers, silently 
pitied by everyone, are more effective than 
one strong, well-equipped and well-paid com- 
munity leader, everybody's pastor — then let 
us have not merely three churches in place of 
one; let us have as many as the trade will 
stand! The argument is a reductio ad 
absurdum! It is very evidently false. 
Blessed is the country community which has 
but one united, self-supporting, self-respecting 
church. 

It is needless, however, to debate such a 
question; for, whether we like it or not, 
country church federation and ultimate union 



86 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

are already in process of evolution. Almost 
everywhere in rural sections you may observe 
the process, in its various stages, as surplus 
churches are uniting in work as well as 
worship, alternating in the use of buildings 
or of pastors, yoking with neighboring 
parishes temporarily, getting closer together 
every year, until by judicious elimination, by 
fair-minded arbitration and reciprocity, and 
ultimately by the grace of God, they awake 
to discover themselves a united church. 
Federation of country churches is in the air. 
You cannot stop it if you try. It is an in- 
evitable evolution which makes for modern 
efficiency, like the consolidation of banks and 
the centralization of schools. And when it 
comes completely, we may expect a higher 
kind of leadership in the country ministry. 
We shall also need a broadened scope for 
that leadership. That is, a broadened con- 
ception of the function of the church itself. 

The mission of the church is to propagate 
the religion of Jesus and Christianize the 
world. Its business is to glorify God by 
following the Christ in the service of men. 
As the executive agency of the Kingdom of 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 87 

Heaven, Jesus' great commission to the 
church (Matt. 28:19) defines its mission; 
and its charter (the inaugural program of 
Jesus in Luke 4: i8ff.) outlines its business: 
to minister to the vital necessities of needy 
men. Broadly speaking, every work for 
human betterment is "our Father's business." 
The church is the primary agency for human 
welfare. 
V Need I emphasize here that the supreme 
function of the church is spiritual? It stands 
in a material world for an unseen God and 
eternal life. It must furnish spiritual vision, 
spiritual power, faith, hope, love — those 
unseen things which endure forever. It must 
constantly furnish inspiration to tired men 
and weary women, for the living of their 
lives. To do this, the church must furnish 
the opportunity for public worship, in sim- 
plicity, sincerity, impressiveness and truth. 
It must perform the priestly function of 
mediating between God and men, until in the 
holy place men feel the hush and peace and 
power of God's presence and go away re- 
freshed and inspired for life's duties. It 
must bring the life of God into the lives of 



88 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

men. It owes the community also a pro- 
phetic service, bringing a genuine message 
from God to human lives, throbbing with 
divine sympathy for all human needs, coura- 
geously challenging the man to whom the 
vision comes, to live the better life, and offer- 
ing practical and immediate help, the help of 
Christ, to live that life. The spiritual service 
of a vital church will include a vivid portrayal 
of the Christ, His person, His teachings, His 
radiant character, His saving power, the 
dynamic for life which flows from Him, by 
union with Him, into every life which accepts 
His comradeship. All this and more. 

Yet the church, particularly the country 
church, seriously errs, which interprets its 
function as exclusively spiritual. Unless man 
is pure spirit, the work of the church is more 
than "saving souls." Soul and body are in 
this life inseparable and interdependent. A 
saved man must be redeemed soul and body, 
in mind and spirit. A religion which aims 
merely to save a man's soul, and otherwise 
neglects him, is superficial and fails to appeal 
to a whole man's manhood. The subtle re- 
actions of life warn us that the soul's environ- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 89 

ment must be redeemed, or the soul stands 
little chance of permanent salvation. Here 
is the nexus between individual and social 
redemption; separate them and the Kingdom 
of Heaven is a remote improbability, unite 
them and the Kingdom comes. In so intelli- 
gent a body as this, the above statement 
ought to be a mere truism, though it is still 
challenged by the narrow-minded. 

If the church is the primary agency for 
human welfare, it dare not deny its vital 
interest in and ultimate responsibility for 
every serious human need. The church has 
lost the love and loyalty of men just in pro- 
portion to its avoidance of this broad respon- 
sibility. 

But it must not be hastily inferred that the 
church must itself attempt to do everything. 
It may discharge its responsibility directly or 
indirectly. Its broadest service will ever be, 
as in the past, to furnish the inspiration and 
dynamic for many secondary agencies for 
social service and human betterment. But it 
must do the needed work, or get it done. It 
should duplicate no machinery or effort, but 
should supplement all other local institutions 



90 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

and perfect their service by its own service of 
the higher life of the community. It should 
be the climax of the social, educational, phil- 
anthropic, cultural, health-restoring, peace- 
preserving as well as economic forces of the 
community; and ideally, it should federate 
them all, in community leadership. Where 
these forces are lacking, it should assume 
these functions if the welfare of the com- 
munity demands it. 

The country church must not simply aim to 
prepare its members for a future heaven. It 
must do its part in making its little corner of 
this world a comfortable and respectable 
place for humanity to grow; that is, it must 
bring the Kingdom of Heaven here. 

I believe that the vital function of the 
country church is not only to minister to all 
the needs of men, when occasion demands it, 
but to lead in that ministry. Where there is 
only one church in the place, it may rightly 
exercise the broadest kind of community 
leadership. Where there are several, they 
simply must cooperate, or be self-condemned 
and forever ridiculed by the ungodly. 

The larger vision of the church's mission 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 91 

will force them out of the petty, jealous atti- 
tude of mind which regards every other 
social institution as in competition with them. 
The burden of the task of saving the com- 
munity and making it better in every way, 
until it becomes a part of the Kingdom of 
Heaven here and now, will so weigh upon 
them that they will gladly welcome two 
things : the most cordial federation, and ulti- 
mate union, of all Christian churches in the 
village; and hearty cooperation with every 
welfare agency. 

If we could agree upon this broad interpre- 
tation of the function of the country church, 
we should have no serious difficulty with the 
fourth subquestion. If the church is the 
primary agency for human welfare, and its 
scope as broad as the vital needs of men, then 
every country church might well adopt this 
platform, adapted from the familiar plat- 
form of the Open Church League : 

"Inasmuch as the Christ came not to be ministered 
unto but to minister, this church, moved by His 
spirit of ministering love, seeks to become the center 
and source of every beneficent and philanthropic 
effort, and to take a leading part in every movement 



92 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

which has for its end the alleviation of human 
sorrow and suffering, the saving of men and the 
bettering of this township as a part in the great 
Kingdom of God. Thus we aim to save all men 
and all of the man, by all just means; abolishing so 
far as possible the distinction between the religious 
and the secular, and sanctifying all means to the 
great end of saving the world for Christ." 

In other words, for a specific answer to 
subquestion four, I should say without any 
hesitation it would be entirely in harmony 
with the country church's proper function to 
undertake to promote any sort of work for 
the physical, intellectual, economic and social 
welfare of the country community, which is 
really needed and is being neglected, and 
might be done by the church directly or 
indirectly. But I would emphasize this con- 
cise statement of Dr. Anderson: u The insti- 
tutional expansion of the church is proper 
only when the social outfit is defective; then 
the church ought to fill the gaps." 

Most churches in the city community need 
not undertake institutional methods, because 
of the rich social and philanthropic equipment 
of its immediate environment. But the 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 93 

country sections, with their meager social 
equipment, often with their manifold human 
needs absolutely unmet, demand the broadest 
kind of brotherly service on the part of the 
churches, for the common good. It will put 
a heavy burden on the church, already stag- 
gering in inefficiency. But it is the burden of 
privilege, and I have faith to believe that the 
very burden, with its vastly broadened chance 
for real leadership, will draw strong men to 
the country pastorate. So long as nothing is 
allowed the church in the way of local leader- 
ship except the cut and dried routine of 
preaching, Sunday school and prayer meeting, 
with nothing to vary the monotony but baked 
bean suppers and funerals — so long we must 
not expect our most virile college men to 
enter the country ministry as a life work. 
Yet we must have a permanently loyal 
country-ministry for life. Nothing less will 
solve our problem. With a broadened scope 
for manly leadership, already possible now 
in many places, I have faith to believe there 
is a real chance which will appeal to strong 
men. Already I am convinced there is a 
better opportunity for broad leadership in 



94 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

the ministry of the average village church 
than in the average city church; and many 
of the least attractive pastorates are in the 
little one-too-many city churches which make 
so little impression upon the life of the city 
wilderness. 

In detail, then, as to definite suggestions on 
the above principle. Let the country church 
(either the single church in its community or 
all the churches acting in federation as a 
close, practical, working unity) assume as its 
inherent right the leadership in community 
building. Let it coordinate all agencies 
already working for human welfare and 
inspire them to greater efficiency. Then let 
it study thoroughly the local needs, resources 
and defects, and plan to develop neglected 
interests. Let it plan first for the physical 
health and well-being of the people; insure 
against contagious disease by improving 
water supply and sewage and setting high 
standards for pure milk; enlist in the anti- 
tuberculosis fight with a campaign of intelli- 
gence which is often as much needed in the 
country as in the city; set high physical stan- 
dards for the boys and young men, and the 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 95 

girls as well, with simple out-of-door gym- 
nasium equipment, if needed, and competitive 
games under wholesome leadership, ensuring 
clean sport. A shower bath connected with 
the church heating system, as in Lovington, 
111., might be just as efficacious as a baptistry. 
Closely related to these activities are the girls' 
club and boys' club plans, which in small 
churches may well be simply extension work 
of the Sunday school, without any additional 
machinery. This is fundamental work, how- 
ever, and its neglect certainly results in boy 
w r aste. 

Rural Sunday schools must and will ulti- 
mately be developed so as to be comparable 
with the local day schools, and be recognized 
as actually educational and vitally helpful. 
The public schools themselves may easily be 
vitalized by a strong personality in the coun- 
try parsonage. I have in mind a vigorous 
pastor who exerts a splendid influence upon 
local school ideals by meeting weekly the 
entire force of school teachers in the town- 
ship in a club for Bible study and literary 
interests. 

The church may wisely furnish the commu- 



96 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

nity a high-class lecture and entertainment 
course during the winter if no other agency 
does this. Preferably it should not be a 
money-making course, but simply and ob- 
viously a community-serving proposition. If 
the right sort of leadership can be secured, 
the country church should undertake a defi- 
nite program of community teaching in im- 
portant matters of country economics and 
sociology, unless in some adequate fashion 
this is undertaken by the grange or some 
other secondary agency. The opportunity 
is infinite for genuine enrichment of local life, 
for raising new community ideals, develop- 
ing local pride in local history or prospects, 
in discovering and developing all unutilized 
resources, in introducing up-to-date methods 
of agriculture, adapted to the soil ; in arous- 
ing a new pride in home-keeping and village- 
beautifying, in stimulating the loyalty of the 
young people to their homes, and making the 
older people more contented. One country 
pastor has made himself an expert on coun- 
try life and given illustrated lectures on such 
topics as, "Corn and Its Culture;" "Insects 
Injurious to Crops;" "Milk;" "Beef Cattle;" 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 97 

"Horses;" "Chickens;" "Birds and their 
Economic Value," etc. 

I forbear to multiply details in these sug- 
gestions and thus limit the valuable time 
which should be given to general discussion. 

Plenty of objections can readily be brought 
against this broadening of the usually narrow 
function of the country church. Some of 
them are doubtless valid, I will grant. Few 
country churches have yet either the means 
or the leadership for such extension plans; 
and under such circumstances they ought to 
attempt them very sparingly. Clearly they 
ought rather to enlist the help of people who 
can do these things effectively. 

Right here, in my judgment, comes the call 
for the county secretaries of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. They are 
experts in rural life, many of them college 
educated men, and often with theological 
training as well. They understand boy life 
and are natural leaders of boys and young 
men. They know rural sociology and eco- 
nomics and they know "the rural mind." 
They believe in the country and propose to 
do their life work in the country; they have 



98 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

no desire to live in the city. Furthermore, 
although they are deeply earnest Christian 
men, they are free from sectarian handicap 
and in the midst of church rivalries they are 
free to act as neutrals, as the trusted agents 
of all the local churches. 

Just as the city Associations have rightly 
relieved many churches of the necessity for 
doing institutional work, likewise the county 
secretaries can plan and organize and exe- 
cute an interdenominational, non-sectarian 
campaign for righteousness in the whole 
county, in physical, intellectual and spiritual 
training for the boys and young men, and in 
economic uplift and efficiency as well as in 
broad social betterment. In my judgment 
the very best leverage upon this important 
matter of country church federation and 
union and vital efficiency is the work of the 
consecrated men in the employ of the county 
work department of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association. In their tactful, considerate 
way they can render a vast service to our 
rural townships and country villages in inte- 
grating community resources and uniting 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 99 

Christian forces in a genuine work of com- 
munity building. 

When in the course of inevitable evolution, 
and survival of the fittest, country churches 
are combined and united in a single church 
in each community, then, without embarrass- 
ment, much of this social work can be di- 
rectly undertaken by the logical and respon- 
sible community leader, the community 
church. At all events, there is nothing to 
fear, but very much to be gained, in making 
the church actually the social center in every 
community, so far as leadership and local 
resources will allow. 



Rev. George Frederick Wells : 

The Country Church and the County Work 

The question which I am asked to discuss 
is the relation between the county depart- 
ment of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation and the country churches of America. 

Let us at the outset be reminded that the 
United States has probably no fewer than 



100 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

80,000 country churches served by 70,000 or 
more Christian ministers. These churches 
are constantly increasing both in numbers 
and in the strength and breadth of their 
work. The ministers are the products of the 
churches themselves ; they are inspired by the 
Christian faith which is the controlling force, 
not only of Christianity but of modern civili- 
zation; they are trained in hundreds of colle- 
giate and post-collegiate institutions both 
civil and ecclesiastical, and they, with the 
churches which they serve, form an ever 
growing agency which is conserving, stimula- 
ting and multiplying all of the constructive 
factors of human society. The modern 
movement of Christian missions and church 
extension is the world's foremost exhibition 
for organized human uplift, and in this 
mighty propaganda the country churches, in 
spite of their many failings, stand in the front 
ranks. 

In the second place is the county work of 
the Young Men's Christian Association. 
The modern church, in doing so well her ser- 
vice of keeping clear the channels for the 
growth of the Christian spirit, is producing 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 101 

year by year an increasing group of young 
men who in observance of the Christian view- 
point are seeking for American life an en- 
during rural base and are associating them- 
selves in what we call the county work. The 
county department is an association of Chris- 
tian men, the purpose of which is to discover, 
enlist, train, and use strong leadership in the 
development of non-urban counties. Their 
association makes special recognition of the 
county as the most favorable sociological 
unit of organization and expert cultivation. 
At the present time sixty men are employed 
to give control to this work in almost fifty 
counties of twenty states and provinces. 
The county workers are the sons of the 
churches. As sons they are more than chil- 
dren or adolescents. Since they have re- 
fused to be dependents, learners and follow- 
ers in every sense in order to be providers, 
teachers, and leaders, we judge that they 
have passed their majority. They are men 
and boys working especially for men and 
boys. They do not assume the prerogatives 
of teaching theology or of providing the 
sacraments. They cannot propagate the 



102 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

churches as such. Neither can they be 
classed among the fundamental social insti- 
tutions. They are the churches working in- 
directly. The county work is doing nothing 
that the churches cannot do and in many 
places are not doing directly. The county 
work, therefore, must be classed among the 
voluntary associations which seek to supple- 
ment the church, or, where the churches are 
very deficient, to act as temporary substitutes 
for them. 

Prof. Alexander R. Merriam: 

One thing to be emphasized is that the 
matter of personality lies at the very center 
of the problem. If we can get the men into 
these churches, the thing will move. I want 
to add one other word to personality; that 
is "hope." We have got to enter into this 
work with hope. There are facts that dis- 
courage us and there are facts that encour- 
age us. A great deal is doing as well as be- 
ing done. Here is a man who has been long 
in one country parish in Connecticut, with a 
church doubling in membership. Another 
man forty years in his parish with a church 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 103 

membership of one hundred and eighty-five 
has fifty-one men who can lead in prayer 
in his prayer meeting. There are things of 
this kind going on the country over. Let us 
realize the fact that we have got to have in 
these communities the right kind of personal- 
ity and when the time comes for federation, 
that man can afford to stay in the parish 
then, and we shall have personality that can 
solve this problem. Then things will move. 
Now, remember that things are moving al- 
ready by personality that has stayed long 
enough in its field. With momentum in the 
future, what cannot be done in the churches 
of Christ? 

Rev. Owen H. Gates : 

Whenever I think of the country church 
it is not of the country church in general, it 
is a particular country church. I find myself 
closing my eyes to generalities and looking 
at some particular church which possesses a 
personality of its own. It is not to be studied 
in the abstract. And it is not a peculiar type 
of church. Its problems involve the whole 
problem of the Kingdom of God. 



104 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Our theologies are built many stories high 
as we build our cities. In them we discuss 
sin and the social problems of life in many 
stories, partly above ground and partly 
below, but we do not get many stations out 
into the country before this many-story 
structure comes down, and up, to the ground 
floor. The sin that had been several base- 
ments deep under ground comes to the sur- 
face again, and we have to deal, not now 
with sin and the plan of redemption, but with 
the sinner to be redeemed and transformed 
to a saint. It all resolves itself into a ques- 
tion of personality. I cannot think of the 
country problem as a Problem with a big 
initial letter. It is a local affair, and a per- 
sonal affair. As we turn our thoughts to the 
country and the needs of the country church, 
we are getting back to the essential needs of 
the church as a whole, to the very essence of 
Christianity. 

When we are describing the function of 
the country church we are simply describing 
the function of the church as such. It is the 
complex organization of the city which is the 
departure from the norm. I feel most in- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 105 

cited to personal Christian service when I 
consider the problems and possibilities of 
such service in connection with the country 
church. 

Moreover, I wish we could get over the 
idea that this or that unpleasant feature of 
country life and work constitutes a limitation 
to the service there. Is the load on the 
wagon a difficulty that the horse has to 
reckon with? Is the train of cars the limita- 
tion of the locomotive? It is rather its task. 
Country conditions constitute the task of the 
church. It must not only try to reach the 
drunkard by the roadside, but must convert 
the deacon who stands in the way of progress 
to an active cooperation in the aggressive 
work needed. These "hindrances" are a part 
of our work, and we must renew our courage 
as we confront them. 

With regard to the seminaries, I think our 
theologies would be clearer and simpler if 
we could formulate them with our minds 
upon the simplicity and plainness of country 
Christians ; with this or that person, or group, 
on our hearts waiting to be fed from the gos- 
pel message which is to be brought to them, 



106 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

if at all, by the students whom we are going 
to send out to those fields. 

The seminaries are considering these 
questions which are being discussed today. 
We are earnest and serious here, but if you 
want earnestness of discussion, and loyalty 
to the cause of the Master, if you want to 
understand how men wrestle with these prob- 
lems through the years, listen to the discus- 
sions in our theological seminaries. The 
problems are not discovered in such confer- 
ences as these. We have been studying 
them, and propose to study them until some 
solution is reached. When the real, essential 
need is discovered, you will find the semi- 
naries ready to meet it, even if they have not 
already anticipated your finding. Certainly 
we are ready to use all our resources upon 
these problems, which are so fundamental to 
the interests of the Christian church. 

Dr. F. E. Emrich : 

Here is something about the work as it 
comes to us in Massachusetts. As Congre- 
gationalists we have one hundred and sixty- 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 107 

five home missionary churches. A word for 
the theological seminaries. Professor Gates 
is librarian of Andover Seminary. There are 
over 2000 books at the disposal of every 
country minister in Massachusetts, to be 
taken out for four or six months, the newest 
and best books, and he has but to pay the car- 
riage one way. Last year 2500 books were 
distributed. The average country minister 
does some reading and thinking for himself. 
The country minister in Massachusetts 
does something for the library. In the par- 
sonage, in the chapel, in the vestry, we have 
our branch libraries. We have a public 
library in every town in Massachusetts. We 
have four institutions in the old Common- 
wealth: town meeting, country meeting- 
house, consolidated school, and public library. 
In one little town on the Cape, where there 
are nine little villages, there are nine public 
libraries to meet the demands of the town. 
In regard to the church and county work, we 
are doing something. Here are four towns : 
Otis, Monterey, Sandisfield and Becket. We 
would like to put in a young man who can 
preach, pay him $1000 a year and parsonage 



108 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

and have him superintend the county work 
of the surrounding towns. He would do just 
what a school superintendent is doing in 
Massachusetts. He goes once in two weeks 
to the teacher to help her out. Our worker 
would take up these towns and help the pas- 
tor, giving him expert advice. I think we 
may do this in time. 

The boy in the country is a chief prob- 
lem. We want a young man who is able to 
help the pastor to meet the boy problem. 
How are we to get them together? As has 
been said, it is ultimately a question of per- 
sonality. Make the minister everywhere a 
resourceful man. Give him power to over- 
come loneliness by love of books. Give him 
all the knowledge you can. Then he should 
be the community leader. You are not to 
judge the church's power in the community 
by church attendance alone. The pastor 
must be pastor of every home in the commu- 
nity. Three or four times a year he should 
go in with a bit of the Word, a bit of prayer 
and thus make the whole parish feel the in- 
fluence of the minister. All the work is not 
done in the church. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 109 

Mr. Richard C. Morse: 

Just a word regarding this matter of per- 
sonality that has been referred to and its 
relation to the county work of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. The relation 
is a very vital one. The path of the Associa- 
tion into the county work was opened in re- 
sponse to a demand for qualified personality 
in our work among country young men. In 
the early decades of our history the perma- 
nency of the country Association was a diffi- 
cult problem. For many years we called it the 
insoluble problem. But the record of the 
country Association was fruitful in the story 
of young men reclaimed. Many personali- 
ties of power and efficiency in our work were 
traced back to the country Association. 
There was never for a moment doubt in our 
minds that we had need of the country Asso- 
ciation and the country community had need 
of us, but owing to incessant emigration of 
its volunteer workers the country Association 
without a secretary to enlist new workers 
was liable to great fluctuation. One of our 
leading supervisory secretaries said years 



110 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

ago that he had learned to look with resig- 
nation upon the death of country Associa- 
tions. First, because he knew they would 
rise again; second, because of the fruitage 
yielded by those Associations though they 
might temporarily pass away. 

When Robert Weidensall conceived of the 
county secretary he conceived of a personal- 
ity solution of the problem of the country 
Association. It was along the pathway of 
a search for the county secretary and the 
personality represented by that office that we 
have been developing the county or rural 
work of the Association. This work is yet 
in its very infancy, only fifty counties being 
as yet organized. In our city work we had 
the same problem half a century ago. The 
question then was, Can we get secretaries of 
qualification for the city Associations? 

I was once asked whether the city of 
Buffalo was a large enough community to call 
for an Association secretary. But we 
worked out the solution in the city work on 
the line of personality and we are now try- 
ing to work out the country problem on the 
same line. It is because with the county as 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 111 

a unit we can get a man, that we make the 
county our unit. It seems to be the smallest 
country or rural unit in which we can get the 
qualified man. 

Now, as to the relation of the country 
Association to the country church. Of 
course it is a subordinate relation always if 
the Young Men's Christian Association is 
true to itself and its record. The develop- 
ment of efficient personality for the county 
work dignifies work in the country. The 
county or rural secretary must rank with the 
secretary in any other department of the 
Young Men's Christian Association. He 
will give that dignity to Association work in 
the country which is one of the things that 
the county work stands for. This cannot be 
happily done without also dignifying the 
country church and the country pastor. The 
county work secretary, therefore, cannot and 
must not be regarded as substituting or rival- 
ing the country church and pastor, but as a 
reinforcement of both and as helping to bring 
in the church and pastor that the country 
needs in order that both may come to their 
own in the country. 



112 the rural church and 

Rev. Andrew Campbell: 

I am still in the country church. I am sat- 
isfied to be there. A brother suggested an 
economic basis which he believed to be the 
fundamental basis. It is an economic ques- 
tion with the country parson. The first 
question under the third topic is, "Is the 
country minister getting a living wage?" I 
think most country ministers are not getting 
a working wage. There are not many coun- 
try ministers here for the reason that they 
cannot afford it. You who come from semi- 
naries or from other institutions have your ex- 
penses paid, but we ministers have to do 
without some things, and perhaps borrow the 
money. We can live on $800 or $1000, but 
we cannot work on that when we have to 
put a good percentage of it back into the 
church to carry on the work. It cost me 
$2.50 last month for postage. There is no 
provision made for that in the country min- 
ister's salary. This is where the county work 
helps out the country church. It comes into 
the town and it supplies a great lack. It 
sends a splendid speaker. It comes ,there 
with its secretary to help us out along social 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 113 

and athletic lines, things we ought to be do- 
ing. There are places in which the county 
work and country church are not mutually 
antagonistic, but where they are cooperative. 
A great many things have been done in the 
past year that we could not have done had 
it not been for the work of the county de- 
partment of the Association. I am glad to 
bear this single word of testimony. I am 
also glad that I borrowed the money to come 
here, because I shall get something to take 
back that will be worth to me at least the 
price of two books for next year. 

Mr. W. D. McRae : 

I am here today with the four county sec- 
retaries, all we have in New Jersey, first of 
all because we are interested in the upbuild- 
ing of the country church of Jesus Christ. 
We are out for the upbuilding of the country 
church first, last and all the time. The man 
who is brought up in a country community, 
as I was, who never rode on a railroad train 
until nineteen years of age, is naturally most 
interested away back there where he was 
brought up. The thing that helped him 



114 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

most was the country church, of course. 
Theoretically we never organize in a town 
unless the pastors and churches want us to 
organize. Practically, we organize when 
pastors oppose. They do not oppose openly. 
It is the ideal basis as set forth. We would 
like the cooperation of the churches. 

The last three months I have put in a 
great deal of time, trying to get the churches 
in a certain town in a certain county of New 
Jersey to do the work that ought to be done. 
The county secretary and myself met a group 
of boys who w r ere asking for Christian lead- 
ership from the Christian men of that town. 
I tried to get Christian men to take hold of 
the proposition. The boys, from fifteen to 
seventeen years, met without Christian lead- 
ership or supervision. You can imagine the 
things the boys did. The first men who sat 
down and met with those boys were the 
county secretaries of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. We have been work- 
ing hard for twelve months. We say we 
must do this work, and the boys ask us to 
do it. By the grace of God we are going to 
do it, if not officially, then unofficially. 



community betterment 115 

Professor Fiske : 

In closing the discussion I wish to speak 
of but two things. First, I wish to challenge 
the idea that there is any real mutual antag- 
onism between the county work men and the 
country churches. It would be unfortunate 
to have any such idea go forth from this con- 
ference. Sometimes, of course, there is a 
little suspicion on the part of the country 
pastors, until they learn more what the county 
work really is. And sometimes the county 
work secretaries feel obliged to go ahead 
with their plans without much church coop- 
eration, but this must not be called antago- 
nism. 

I presume I know a majority of the county 
work men in the eastern section and some in 
the Middle West, and I can testify to their 
splendid spirit of earnest consecration and, 
in general, to their tactfulness. They are not 
rivaling the church. They are all church 
men themselves. To be sure, they love the 
Kingdom of God more than any church; but 
they are faithful to their church. I met in 
conference ten nights ago a group of earnest 
county work men in Ohio, where the work 



116 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

has the support of the business men and pro- 
gressive farmers of the entire county. The 
county work secretary was a member of the 
ministers' union at the county seat, and sec- 
retary of the union. And he surely had a 
right to be, for the county Association work 
is simply a specialized form of country min- 
istry. It may be that sometimes there is a 
little impatience on the part of the Associa- 
tion men with the slowness of the country 
churches, but there is no real antagonism. 
Just as our city Associations have learned 
that they could not consider their work as in 
competition with the churches, but supple- 
mentary to them, likewise I think it is true 
that the county work has passed through the 
former stage and is now everywhere anxious 
to cooperate and help, and not to antagonize. 
The other thing I wish to say is this: 
Representatives of at least fourteen theologi- 
cal seminaries have been called to this con- 
ference ; on the assumption, I presume, that 
we are training the country ministers. We 
are not. We are training the city and the 
village ministers. The rural ministers are 
seldom trained at all, particularly in the 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 117 

West. Doubtless we should not expect a fully 
trained man to live on a rural church salary 
at present. There will surely be more hope 
for the country church when, by closer feder- 
ation and union, the churches are able to 
secure and support stronger ministers, men 
who can afford time and money for an ade- 
quate training for their profession. Until 
then the seminaries can not be held respon- 
sible for the shortcomings of the country 
ministry. 

Dr. Josiah Strong: 

Brethren: I should not have ventured to 
say a word, for your time is too precious for 
me to occupy. I have a great fund of igno- 
rance on this subject. You are in direct con- 
tact with the problem. I am not. You have 
first-hand knowledge. I have second-hand 
knowledge. I have been compelled to miss 
your discussions, which I greatly regret. I 
must express my very great gratification in 
the fact of such a conference. I have been 
very deeply interested in the country problem 
for twenty-seven years, and such a confer- 
ence as this would not have been possible 



118 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

twenty-seven years ago and many years this 
side of twenty-seven. It is an exceedingly 
encouraging fact that such men as are gath- 
ered here are discussing intelligently the 
great problem of the country church. I 
would like to emphasize my conviction that 
there is no occasion for discouragement. 
Is not everything possible in the Kingdom of 
God? The salvation of the rural district 
is not to be accomplished without the aid of 
the rural church. You have touched a great 
many points that appeal to me very strongly 
indeed, and if I had been here I should have 
been exceedingly glad to have participated 
in their discussion. I will simply call atten- 
tion to the fact that I have in my hands here 
an article written by Mr. Wells and also a 
very valuable bibliography prepared by him 
which you are welcome to so far as they will 
go around. 

Prof. James McConaughy, head of the de- 
partment of the English Bible at Mount 
Hermon School, gave a most helpful talk 
covering his experience in cooperating with 
the country churches in the neighborhood of 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 119 

Mount Hermon, emphasizing the impor- 
tance of continuous service of a pastor or 
any other rural leader and of cooperative 
effort. Professor McConaughy's address 
had a deep spiritual tone which brought real 
inspiration into the meeting. 



SUMMARIES OF DISCUSSIONS 

The following are the summaries of dis- 
cussions reported by the several gentlemen 
appointed for this purpose at the beginning 
of the conference : 

The Teaching of Religion in the 
Country 

Dr. C. A. Barbour 

The gospel is good seed. It is not always 
productive seed. Its productiveness is con- 
ditioned by the soil. What of the soil for 
the seed as sown in the rural districts? 

Rural civilization is in process of recon- 
struction. It gathers about four centers — 
the store, the school, the church, the family. 
All of these are out of repair. 

There is a difference of opinion regard- 
ing character and life conditions in country 
districts, some maintaining that personal 
morality is at high level while standards of 
social ethics are low, some contending that 
the standards of personal morality are by no 
means ideal. 



122 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Certain conclusions find general agree- 
ment: 

i. The teaching of religion in rural dis- 
tricts must be systematic but not unwisely 
divisive. Emphasize the great fundamental 
and universal phases of truth, not the points 
of difference. 

2. Fit leaders are necessary. If they are 
country born and equally well trained, so 
much the better. In any case, they must find 
the intelligent and sympathetic point of view 
for country work, if they are there to succeed. 

3. Greater insistence upon the teaching 
in our theological schools of a social gospel, 
founded on the teaching of Jesus and the 
standards of the New Testament, is emi- 
nently desirable. The truest social gospel is 
based upon revealed religion and has due 
recognition of the supernatural. 

4. The coming of the community rural 
school may be very influential in the location 
and the work of the community rural church. 

5. The pastor in the rural districts 
should enter upon a course of systematic 
teaching and training of his people, minister- 
ing not only to the distinctively religious life, 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 123 

but to the quickening of the intellectual life 
as well. For the accomplishment of this end 
the minister himself must be a man of spirit- 
ual and intellectual resource. 

6. The multiplication of weak and strug- 
gling churches in any community is an ob- 
stacle and a reproach to the cause of reli- 
gion. The chief objective of such multiplied 
churches will inevitably be, or become, the 
effort for the self-perpetuation of the indi- 
vidual church. There should be cooperation, 
which will eventually lead to confederation 
and consolidation wherever the most states- 
manlike policy for any community directs. 

Country Church Finances and Admin- 
istration 

Rev. R. H. M. Augustine 

i. That the financial support given to 
the Christian ministry in the country church 
should at the least be equal to the living wage 
that obtains among farmers of the commu- 
nity. 

2. That as the lack of proper support for 
the country church is due not so much to in- 



124 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

ability as to the lack of liberality and as a 
more generous support financially is not only 
desirable but necessary, appeals for increased 
support that would be instructive and states- 
manlike should be more frequently made. 

3. That local independence and auton- 
omy in finances, in government and in deter- 
mining local policies be encouraged. 

4. That it is vital to the life of all of our 
country churches that an attempt be made to 
adapt the work of the church to the need of 
the community. 

5. That the work of the agricultural 
colleges in supplementing the work of the 
seminaries in the further equipment of the 
country ministry be approved and encour- 
aged. 

6. That the church and country ministry 
be looked upon as being in command of the 
forces and in a position to direct the move- 
ment for community betterment. 

Country Community Building 

Prof. Ernest Burnham 

Further progress in country community 
building calls for a more adequate provision 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT US 

through institutions founded for such pur- 
poses of men selected, specifically trained, 
and enlisted for life in rural community ser- 
vice. Native talent enriched intelligence, 
tried sympathies, resolute will; in short, an 
individually refined and a socially cultured 
personality — these are the presuppositions 
of a leadership equal to the constructive pro- 
gram by which the new country community 
is to emerge out of the old without losing the 
worthy ideals of the old. 



Cooperation and Integration of Coun- 
try Community Institutions 

Mr. D. C. Drew 

That some agency is necessary to coordi- 
nate rural social institutions. 

That a practical demonstration in terms 
of country life be made in rural communities, 
resulting in the federation of all the uplift 
forces in the community. 

The federating and unifying power of the 
Young Men's Christian Association is recog- 
nized. 



126 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

The economic problem and the associative 
problem are fundamental to all progress in 
rural uplift. 

There must be men in the ministry who 
are loyal to the country and thus make a dis- 
tinct profession known as the country min- 
istry. 

That a clearer definition of the community 
be established in terms of country life. 

SUPPLEMENT BY DR. H. B. MacCAULEY 

We call the attention of all the pastors 
and churches, especially in the country, to the 
desirability of forming interchurch federa- 
tions in all the counties as an important 
means of carrying into effect the program 
outlined at this conference. 

The Function of the Country Church 
Mr. R. C. Morse 

That capable leadership of the country 
church is of primary importance. That the 
church is the fundamental agency of human 
welfare. That the broadening of the church 
is necessary to its maximum of service to the 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 127 

rural community. The county work of the 
Young Men's Christian Association is sup- 
plemental and cooperative in its relation to 
the country church. Upon the personality in 
its leadership and upon the efficiency of this 
personality must depend efficiency in the work 
of both church and county Associations. 

SUPPLEMENT BY DR. T. C. HALL 

It is the sense of this conference that this 
county work of the Young Men's Christian 
Association seek cooperation with the Council 
of Church Federation, asking also the 
authoritative ecclesiastical bodies for their 
aid and counsel. 

SUPPLEMENT BY DR. H. B. MacCAULEY 

This conference would welcome some kind 
of official cooperation between the local 
Interchurch Federation and the committee 
of the Young Men's Christian Association 
county work, and to this end we recommend 
that this matter be forwarded to the Federal 
Council and to the International Committee 
of the Young Men's Christian Association 
for their mutual consideration. 



128 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

The following resolution by Dr. H. B. 
MacCauley was unanimously adopted: 

That the thanks of this conference on the 
country church held at the International 
Committee Building, New York, December 
i, 19 10, be tendered to the county work de- 
partment of the International Committee of 
the Young Men's Christian Associations for 
the holding of this conference and the ar- 
rangements of the program, together with 
their splendid hospitality, all of which things 
have brought us closer together and closer 
to the Master. 

On the evening of the Conference day the 
annual dinner of the International Commit- 
tee was held at the Waldorf-Astoria and a 
majority of the delegates accepted Dr. Mc- 
Alpin's invitation to attend. Two of the 
delegates, Dr. Butterfield and Secretary 
Hayes, were honorary guests. 



LIST OF DELEGATES 

Ernest H. Abbott, The Outlook. 

E. L. Allen, County secretary of Westchester 

County, N. Y. 
Miss Mary L. Allen, National Board of Young 

Women's Christian Associations. 
Rev. William H. Allison, Ph. D., dean and pro- 
fessor, Ecclesiastical History, Colgate Theological 

Seminary. 
Rev. W. L. Anderson, author of "The Country 

Town." 
Rev. R. H. M. Augustine, pastor, Hanover (N. J.) 

Presbyterian Church. 
Prof. W. B. Bailey, instructor in Sociology, Yale 

Divinity School. 
C. A. Barbour, D. D., secretary, International Com- 
mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. 
Miss Helen F. Barnes, National Board Young 

Women's Christian Associations. 
Wallace Batchelder, member of County Committee 

of Windsor County, Vt. 
W. H. Baxley, county secretary, Westchester 

County, N. Y. 
John R. Boardman, New York. 
Miss Elizabeth Boies, National Board of Young 

Women's Christian Associations. 
Dr. Charles H. Boynton, professor of Homiletics and 

Pedagogy, General Theological Seminary. 



130 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

H. S. Braucher, Playground Association of America, 

Rev. J. Lee Brooks, pastor, Methodist Episcopal 
Church, Anderson, N. J. 

F. E. Burgess, secretary, International Committee 
of Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Prof. Ernest Burnham, director, Western State 
Normal School, Kalamazoo, Mich. 

Kenyon L. Butterfield, LL. D., president, Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College. 

Rev. Andrew Campbell, pastor, Orthodox Congre- 
gational Church of Christ, Groveland, Mass. 

W. J. Campbell, state county work secretary of 
the Young Men's Christian Associations of Penn- 
sylvania. 

Miss Julia F. Capen, general secretary of the Young 
Women's Christian Association, Lakewood, N. J. 

E. C. Carter, secretary, International Committee of 
Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Daniel Chase, county secretary, Eastern Delaware 
County, N. Y. 

Rev. S. C. Coale, pastor, Union Church, Littleton, 
N.J. 

Rev. W. Russell Collins, D. D., professor of Litur- 
gies and Ecclesiastical Polity, Theological Semi- 
nary of the Reformed Episcopal Church, Phila- 
delphia. 

William Knowles Cooper, general secretary of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, Washington. 

Miss Mabel Cratty, National Board of Young 
Women's Christian Associations. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 131 

Miss Caroline B. Dow, dean of National Training 
School of Young Women's Christian Associations. 

Dwight C. Drew, state county work secretary of 
the Young Men's Christian Associations of Massa- 
chusetts. 

Edwin L. Earp, Ph. D., professor of Sociology and 
director of Drew Theological Seminary. 

Dr. Frederick E. Emrich, secretary, Massachusetts 
Home Missionary Society. 

Rev. Charles R. Erdman, professor of Practical 
Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary. 

Elmer O. Fippin, professor of Soil Technology, New 
York State College of Agriculture, Cornell Uni- 
versity. 

George J. Fisher, M. D., secretary, International 
Committee of Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions. 

Prof. G. Walter Fiske, junior dean, Oberlin Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

A. W. Fismer, Ph. D., professor Practical Theology, 
German Theological Seminary. 

Rev. George C. Foley, D. D., Jay Cooke professor 
of Homiletics and Pastoral Care, Philadelphia 
Divinity School. 

E. L. Fullam, member, County Committee of Wind- 
sor County, Vt. 

C. A. Gammons, county secretary, Western Dela- 
ware County, N. Y. 

P. W. Garrett, county secretary, Monmouth County, 
N.J. 



132 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

Prof. Owen H. Gates, librarian, Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

Rev. F. F. German, St. Thomas' Church, Mamaro- 
neck, N. Y. 

C. C. Gerow, member, County Committee of 
Orange County, N. Y. 

Rev. C. O. Gill, Hartland, Vt. 

Guy D. Gold, county secretary of Rockland County, 
N. Y. 

Dr. W. A. Granger, president, New York State 
Baptist Convention. 

Thomas Cuming Hall, D. D., professor of Chris- 
tian Ethics, Union Theological Seminary. 

Clarence L. Harding, member, County Subcom- 
mittee of the Interstate Committee of the Young 
Men's Christian Associations of Maryland and 
Delaware. 

Hon. Willet M. Hays, assistant secretary, United 
States Department of Agriculture. 

Ernest J. Hewitt, member Windsor County, Ver- 
mont County Committee. 

C. J. Hicks, associate general secretary of the Inter- 
national Committee of Young Men's Christian 
Associations. 

Fred M. Hill, state county work secretary of the 
Young Men's Christian Association of New York. 

Alvah S. Hobart, D. D., professor, New Testament 
Interpretation, Crozer Theological Seminary. 

Arthur S. Hoyt, D. D., professor, Homiletics and 
Sociology, Auburn Theological Seminary. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 133 

A. C. Hurd, county secretary, Windsor County, Vt. 

Henry Israel, county work secretary, International 
Committee Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Wayne C. Jordan, county secretary, Sullivan 
County, N. H. 

Rev. William B. Ladd, Colt professor of Church 
History, Berkeley Divinity School. 

H. B. MacCauley, D. D., secretary, Eastern District 
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 
America. 

Edgar MacNaughten, secretary, International Com- 
mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. 

D. Hunter McAlpin, M. D., chairman, Interna- 
tional County Work Subcommittee. 

Prof. James McConaughy, Mount Hermon School. 

William D. McRae, state county work secretary 
of Young Men's Christian Associations of N. J. 

Prof. A. R. Mann, registrar, New York State Col- 
lege of Agriculture, Cornell University. 

Rev. Paul Martin, registrar and secretary, Prince- 
ton Theological Seminary. 

H. D. Maydole, county secretary, Camden County, 
N.J. 

Prof. Alexander R. Merriam, Department of Homi- 
letics and Pastoral Care, Hartford Theological 
Seminary. 

Lyford A. Merrow, chairman, State County Work 
Subcommittee of New Hampshire. 

Hon. A. C. Monahan, Department of the Interior, 
Bureau of Education. 



134 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

J. Sterling Moran, county secretary, Addison 
County, Vt. 

F. S. Morrison, interstate secretary of Young Men's 
Christian Associations of Maryland and Dela- 
ware. 

Richard C. Morse, general secretary of the Inter- 
national Committee of Young Men's Christian 
Associations. 

Frank W. Ober, editor Association Men. 

Rev. G. Phillips Payson, Katonah, N. Y. 

Thornton B. Penfield, Ph. D., secretary, Interna- 
tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciations. 

J. W. Pontius, secretary, International Committee 
of Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Otis B. Read, county secretary, Burlington County, 
N.J. 

G. A. Reeder, secretary, International Committee of 
Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Albert E. Roberts, county work secretary, Inter- 
national Committee of Young Men's Christian 
Associations. 

Peter Roberts, Ph. D., secretary, International Com- 
mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. 

E. M. Robinson, secretary, International Committee 
of Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root, field secretary of 
the Massachusetts Federation of Churches. 

Allen M. Ruggles, Columbia University. 



COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 135 

Elias B. Sanford, D. D., corresponding secretary of 

the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 

America. 
Miss Anna Seaburg, secretary, National Board of 

Young Women's Christian Associations. 
F. E. Shapleigh, interstate county secretary of the 

Young Men's Christian Associations of Maryland 

and Delaware. 
Rev. William Shedden, assistant librarian, Princeton 

Theological Seminary. 
F. B. Shipp, secretary, International Committee of 

Young Men's Christian Associations. 
Fred B. Smith, secretary, International Committee 

of Young Men's Christian Associations. 
Jefferson C. Smith, state secretary of Maine Young 

Men's Christian Associations. 
C. W. Stetson, county secretary, Greene County, 

N.Y. 
Josiah Strong, D. D., president, American Institute 

for Social Service. 
Ezra S. Tipple, Ph. D., professor of Practical 

Theology, Drew Theological Seminary. 
James F. Turnbull, American Baptist Home Mission 

Society. 
Prof. Robert W. Veach, dean of Bible Teachers 

Training School, New York. 
Rev. George F. Wells, research secretary, Depart- 
ment of Christian Sociology, Bureau of Field 

Work, Drew Theological Seminary. 



136 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 

James A. Whitmore, secretary, International Com- 
mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Z. L. Wilcox, county secretary, Orange County, 
N.Y. 

Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., superintendent of the 
Department of Church and Country Life of the 
Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church of the United States of America. 

Henry Yeigh, chairman, County Subcommittee of 
the Provincial Committee of Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations of Ontario and Quebec. 



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